Crosscut
by Starburstia
Summary: At the culmination of zero requiem, Lelouch is hurled into Ametris. The homunculi are on the move, and the Elric brothers trust no man. Que Sera Sera.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Heya, this is my first fic, and it's a crossover, because… I wanted to… I like Code Geass, and I like FullMetal Alchemist. I saw a parallel. Well, a very vague parallel, but I still don't see why this isn't crossed over more often. Stranger things have been conceived.

* * *

Chapter 1

* * *

Lelouch smiled faintly as Suzaku lunged towards him.

It was a nice day. All bright blue and clear sun, everything was in crystal clarity.

His role in this world was almost, almost over.

Zero's cape seemed to flare behind him in slow motion, the screams of the crowd -_fear, joy?_- becoming strangely muted.

It took no time at all. He saw the cape and the mask and- Lelouch felt no regret as the tip of that sword pierced through his stomach. There was a stunned, heavy silence, and then his world exploded in pain.

Lelouch let out a strangled gasp, not at all fake. He knew it would hurt, but the shock was forcing blood up his throat. Sparks flashed in the corners of his vision, his world fragmented. Lelouch's hand went reflexively to his stomach, and mentally jolted as he felt the reinforced alloy of the sword still there. His hands were slick with something. Blood.

_Ah_, he thought, forcing himself to move. It wasn't over yet.

With great effort, Lelouch lifted his blood-soaked hand and mumbled out his final orders through a haze of shock.

"You shall no longer live as Kururugi Suzaku…" he remembered speaking, placing his hand on the mask, and feeling it slide off. "Save… Protect… as…" his breath hitched and he felt like he would choke. But he needed to finish. "Zero…" he gasped.

_Thank you_, he finished in his head. There was a moment of stillness, and then he felt Suzaku lurch, away from him, jerking the sword out, silent pain and regret in the motion.

To the world, Zero had just saved them all. Lelouch staggered forward, as the crowd's volume rapidly resumed from that frozen, crystallized moment.

They were chanting. "ZE-RO, ZE-RO, ZE-RO!"

The Black Knights, staring in shock.

Kallen, straining against her bonds, the look of shock on her face.

Lelouch staggered forward a step, then another, his legs giving out from under him. He could feel his body dying, growing lightheaded, dizzy.

"Brother! Brother!" someone was screaming. Nunnally? Lelouch slowly opened his eyes, trying to focus on hers. It wasn't easy. He was going numb, his eyes glazing over with a kind of grey. But he was done. He had finally completed it. Everything was going to be alright. Nunnally was still crying. Lelouch wanted to tell her, too, what he wanted to do. He wanted to tell her so badly. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, to make her know. Nunnally didn't deserve a lie in the end.

Lelouch was still and pale, lifeblood seeping on the ground, staining Nunally's red rags. It was a miracle that he was still alive. A miracle... He smiled wistfully

"Yes... I will destroy... worlds… and recreate them." Quiet and laughing at his last joke on the world.

He didn't see Nunnally stop and stare, tears streaming down her cheeks from her beautiful, opened eyes. He didn't see Suzaku,_Zero_, arrogantly display his deed to the world with a sword to the sky and reignite fire in so many hearts as Lelouch himself had once done.

All he saw was white clouds and pleasing blue, remembering happier days, where the his world was not yet at war, and friends could do absolutely anything they believed. He saw laughter and sunflowers and smelled old wood and musky grass and watched the happiest -_and remember, said a childish voice, happiness is_ - days of his life.

Lelouch vi Britannia died magnificently, screams of hate and love ringing in his ears. He was smaller in death then he was in life, each mask stripped away in the whirlwind of his life mission.

_Goodbye Nunnally. Don't cry._

* * *

He saw the images again. The world of C and the knowledge of contract. The people, the planets, the ever turning gears. The thought elevator, twirling grostequely into the sky. Then, the sigil of geass, glowing red and filling his consciousness until-_nothing_.

* * *

The door slammed open, bouncing off the back wall with a loud bang. The secretary glanced up, grimaced, and turned back to the files opened on her desk.

Edward Elric stormed past. Shaking his head, his brother followed.

"Brother, don't break anything this time!" the childlike voice resonated strangely from the armor.

"This better be good," snapped Ed. Turning right, he barely paused to check if he had the right door. He shoved open the door and swept into the office, ignoring Falman and Feury smirking at him from the corner. "I'm here, alright? What the hell do you want now?"

"Is that anyway to talk to your superior, now?" Mustang said, his chin resting on the back of one gloved hand.

Ed sucked in an angry breath, but before he could say anything, Roy plowed forward, "Well, I'll get straight to the point then." He pushed a folder across his desk to Edward's side. Seeing Edward's face, he added, "That's your briefing. There's been a... disturbance in New Optain, and I would like to remind you that you are indeed under my command despite your infrequent missions." A slow smirk grew on his face. Edward twitched. "Your mission is search and intervene. Don't worry, it's only one short mission. "

There were a few moments of silence. "WHAT? You called me here just for something like that? Go call someone else! I am NOT your- " Another thought occurred to him. "I AM NOT SHORT, DAMMIT!" Alphonse already had Edward's arms in an iron grip as Ed flailed about in fury.

Mustang looked unaffected. "Fullmetal, are you sure you realize the nature of this disturbance?" He raised an eyebrow, sliding the report closer with one finger. "I could assign you something more fitting to your rank if you wish." There was a thin edge to his smile. Edward looked at him sharply.

"What, the higher ups put you up to this?"

"While investigating" Mustang said, ignoring him, "If you found an interesting situation you could find it prudent not to announce your presence to anyone with a higher rank than mine." He gave Edward a sideways glance. "Undercover work, you understand."

Mustang caught? What were the odds? "With the ... investigations, I seem to have caught some attention. They're separating you from me. Just go, and wait until I find some way out of this." Was that what he was saying?

Edward breathed out. "Fine. I get this once, Colonel Bastard!" Edward grabbed the briefing off the desk and turned to walk out the door. "Come on, Al."

"O-okay brother!" said Al, who was looking at Mustang hesitantly. He turned to follow his brother.

The door slammed shut. Roy could almost imagine the flurry of subdued activity behind him as the disappointed Breda handed over money to a smug Havoc or some other nonsense. Did they think he didn't know they betted on Edward's temper?

Roy massaged the bridge of his nose and sighed. Why was it so difficult to deal with the Elric brothers?

* * *

As Ed and Al walked out the door, Al said, "But don't we need to find, you know…"

Ed shook his head. When they were a safe distance from anyone and in the hall, he replied, "You heard Mustang, we can't let them know how close we are. Let's just act like we usually do, it's not like we're doing anything illegal." Yet, he added in his mind. He glanced up at Al, smiling a little. "Just wait a little longer…"

* * *

.

.

.

_:Wait. Was this supposed to happen when you died? Was this hell?:._

* * *

They all felt it. All seven of them. How their breath paused for half a second and a shiver went down their spine as _something_happened. The gate of truth, the one thing that they originated, feared, longed for- had opened.

Father looked up, completely puzzled for the first time in his long life. "What is this?"

Unheard, the guardian of the gate smiled maliciously, with a hard grin and a pulsating, furious, aura.

* * *

_Even though his eyes were closed, Lelouch could still see it. It was racing closer at an alarming rate. He was hurtling through the world of C, over desolate landscapes, floating platforms, lonely stars and images of cities, straight into the collective unconscious._

_.:What _was_ this?:._

_.:This was death?:._

* * *

"Find it! Find the anomaly!" rasped Father, urgently. This was unexpected. There could be no exceptions, no anomalies. It had be dealt with. Trembling with rage, he called his children to him.

There would be no interferences.

Envy lurched as that strange wave blazed through him again, coughing. He instinctively knew Lust and Gluttony felt the same. The shockwaves only they could sense, a rip connected to the gate- it was an unfamiliar and twisting feeling, something new.

Gluttony pawed at his chest. Was it hunger?

Something was wrong.

"Find it!" he repeated as they sprung to their feet and ran, even as their footsteps faded.

* * *

_There were small black hands, everywhere, grasping at him. Images were being shoved through his mind, places he'd never seen, things he'd never noticed. Formulas, feelings, incantations, techniques, unknown science, languages._

_Pure knowledge was crammed into his brain, making him cry out in shock and pain. His head felt like it was about to explode! This wasn't possible! What was happening?_

_The last thing he heard was an eerie, unnatural laugh, like an distorted echo of his own._

* * *

.

The bright scarlet train raced along the tracks with the usual comforting hum of noise. Ed was staring out the window, head in hand.

Al sat across from him, sitting straight and still and looking for all the world like a suit of armor set down in the compartment. The city of New Optain was just now coming into view. Tall spires first, the infamous statues that- Ed lifted his head, staring in astonishment.

Al had the same reaction. "Brother! What is-"

* * *

The array was reacting prematurely? But that was impossible! But the sacrifices weren't ready yet! Father abruptly stood up from his carved throne. _How? Why?_

New Optain was glowing. It was one of the corners of the giant array Father had arranged, and that was where, admist the rubble of the city that Lelouch vi Britannia landed.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

* * *

New Optain was a peaceful city, almost directly North of East City, and Southwest of Lior. It was a major hub, but not such a valuable hold in war. Alchemy was known to exist, but almost a myth in their reality, not really ever seen by the majority of the population. So, it was much a surprise to everyone as them when their beloved city suddenly started glowing.

Edward Elric pressed his face against the window, sharp eyes noting every detail about the current scene. Al just stared in astonishment, or at least what his body pose implied, leaning back and tilting his head.

The train slowed down abruptly.

"What are they _doing_? We need to get there _now_!" a frustrated Ed hissed, banging his fist against the window. As if in response to his words, the train suddenly stopped, and all the lights inside flickered, then went out. "ARGH! Come on, Al!"

"Brother! Wait! Please don't-" _CRASH!_

* * *

Lelouch was barely awake. His head felt absolutely horrible, as if someone had poured hot molten magma slowly down his brain, then hammered on it. With pickaxes. Lelouch groaned, and a throbbing pain around his chest sluggishly registered in his brain. God, it hurt.

His mind bravely investigated further. It _hurt_! Suddenly, the pain was unbearable. Lelouch screamed as hot spikes of agony clawed its way across his body. He couldn't breathe! Writhing only worsened the pain but he couldn't stop. _Why wasn't he dead?_

Lelouch opened his tear-filled eyes as if it would somehow help. Briefly, he saw something large protruding from his chest, and shadowy figures around the rim of the crater before the pain overtook him and he gratefully fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

Lust and Envy tore through the crowd, not even trying to be unobtrusive. Gluttony loped stupidly beside, thumb in his mouth. They were long out of Central's sewers, and were quickly heading to where they had felt the large alchemic flare. It was miles away, though. The first human city rose up in their path, and they glanced at eachother. With quiet movements, they melted into the shadows, only Envy continuing to run full pelt into the city. Father's plan, under any circumstances, mustn't be put into danger.

Envy grinned as he found what he was looking for. "Hello sir," he said, quickly morphing into a pretty young thing. "How do you do?" The driver glanced over and froze in horror as a jagged grin crept up Envy's face. He grinned sadistically at the frightened driver as he plunged his arm through the man's body.

"Thank you, sir," he snickered as he threw the driver aside and slid into the car. Lust materialized out of the trees on the edge of the city and settled in beside him. Gluttony was looking at the body, and stared up hopefully at Lust.

"No, Gluttony, we're in a hurry." She said, flicking her hair out the way.

"That's right! We're have a little job to finish tonight." Envy said, almost shivering in excitement. "So why don't you get in the fucking car, fatso." With that, Envy twirled the keys, shoved it into the ignition, and started to move forward with a screech of wheels. Gluttony barely made it onto the back of the military truck before it roared into top speed, and disappeared before the rapidly increasing crowd and onto the road to New Optain.

* * *

There was a stunned silence in the train corridor. Faces peeked out cautiously from their compartments.

"Brother! You didn't have to do that!"

"Heh heh."

"_Bro-ther_!"

"Hey, we're out, aren't we? Leave me alone! Let's see how Colonel Bastard deals with that!"

"That was too much!"

"…"

Al sighed. Eventually, they would somehow be forced to fix the giant hole in the train. He exasperatedly added it to the large mental Ed todo list.

* * *

Cautiously, Ed and Al moved into the streets. Rubble was everywhere. The glow was coming from the ground, thick lines snaking around the city. It seemed like an earthquake really had hit.

Suddenly, a woman ran out of a wrecked building and franticly onto the streets.

"My husband! No! Why?" she sobbed. Her arm was covered in blood, and hung uselessly on one side of her body. She completely ignored the startled Elric brothers and ran to the end of the street and back in helpless sobbing, stopping suddenly and kneeling down. Ed and Al glanced at each other, then cautiously approached the crying woman.

"Excuse me, ma'am." Started Al, "Could you tell us what happened?"

"I don't know!" The woman wailed, "I don't know! Where's my husband!"

"Calm down, please. Calm down." Said Al soothingly to the woman. "What happened?"

"I don't know! The ceiling just fell! M-my Mikey!" She broke down in renewed sobbing and wailing. "Where is he? He can't be- I didn't see-"

"Please ma'am, just-"

"Come on, Al. We won't find anything from her." Said Ed in a subdued voice.

"But-"

"Al! Just-" Then a pain-filled scream filled the air, fresh and close.

Ed immediately started towards it, then looked back at Al. Al sighed, patted the keening woman's back one last time, then started running after his brother.

A little after the scream had stopped echoing, they both reached the source. Ed and Al simply stared in surprise at what they found.

"Is that-?

* * *

AN: I don't actually like to write! … But I really wanted a crossover, and my mental psychic-ness wasn't working on anyone across the whole interwebs, so I decided to write one… I'm definitely a rabid reader, but a crappy writer. So if anyone gets story bunnies anywhere from in or on this fic, please publish a CG/FMA crossover. Please. Oh, reviewing is helpful, too.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: I'm baaaaaaaa—aaack~! You people probably forgot I was gone, haha.

* * *

Chapter 3

* * *

"Ed!"

"Right! Come on, Al!" The two brothers stopped gawking and ran down into the crater, towards the figure lying on the ground.

"What happened?"

"Just help!" There was pale boy sprawled across the ground, with a ridiculous white getup of some sort. He was unnaturally pale, and his breathing was erratic. Eyes flickered under pale lids. There was a large piece of metal driven straight through his chest, probably part of the building that had previously stood where he laid, judging by the debris. A large red stain was blossoming across his chest, giving Ed a lot of panicked urgency. His raven black hair was tousled and a crumpled hat lay a few feet away.

Edward clapped his hands and placed them on the sharp metal, dissolving it into harmless pieces. He then knelt down to stare at the wound. Edward quickly alchemized open the front of the boy's outfit, and started to wrap bandages torn from his red coat around the boy's abdomen. "Al!" He said, still wrapping, "Call Mustang, I think this guy is the cause of all this. Probably some rouge experiment, most likely illegal. The radius was unnaturally large, though, and the train lost power. Right now, we can't let anything unusual pass." There was a pause. Al knew Ed was referring to the homunculi and their strange plans. "Let's get him cleaned up, and then make him tell us what's going on." He looked up, his face strained. "Now!" Al nodded, then started running back to the train, hoping to find a working phone. Ed stood up, hand and automail arm covered in the boy's blood. He balled his fists, and glared at the ground.

The wound was fatal. The boy's heart had stopped, and it seemed like a lung had been pierced. Even if he did get aid in time, he would not survive. He cast one last glance at the broken figure, sighed, and turned back to the town. There was a lot of work to be done, investigations to start. Perhaps someone else knew what was going on.

Then he heard a groan.

* * *

"Damn it!" cried Envy. "Can't one of us teleport or something?" Lust stared at the map. Gluttony started to suck his thumb as the car swerved dangerously around the road.

* * *

Al ran through the town, noting all the distraught and confused people staggering from the ruins of their homes. The strange red glow had faded, leaving no trace, but the effect certainty hadn't. There were some people clutching small bodies to their chest, wailing, and others just wandering aimlessly in a daze. There was actually some kind of impromptu rescue team forming that consisted of several relatively uninjured young men gently guiding people into the former town square, salvaging bandages and food from the collapsed houses, and lining up bodies. They looked grim, and slightly angry. Al stopped one. The young man looked at him impatiently and stopped in surprise.

"I'm sorry to bother you," Al said awkwardly, "but do you know what happened here? What caused all this destruction?" The man's brown eyes quickly narrowed.

"An earthquake, of some sort," he said suspiciously. "How can anyone know? Who are you anyway? Do you know who is responsible for this- this-" He gave a quick jerk of his hand, indicating the ruins. "Everything is destroyed! It's obviously not natural." He turned on his heel and stalked towards the wreckage, muttering. Al watched for a moment, then turned and started jogging towards the station. There ought to be a phone there.

* * *

Ed froze. _That's impossible._ The boy was- Ed spun around and glared at the boy lying on the ground. The body sat there limply. It couldn't be-

"Ed!" He heard Al call. If Al had come back this quickly, that could only mean that there was no way to contact the Colonel at the moment.

"Hey Al, come here for a sec." Said Edward, not keeping his eyes off the twitching figure on the ground. He clapped his hands, and with a sizzle, a sharp blade formed out of his right arm.

* * *

Lelouch came to very suddenly. He groaned at the strange muffled pounding of his head, wondering what had happened. The last thing he could remember was something stabbed through his chest… he felt like he was dying. Something almost electric went up his spine and his body twitched involuntarily as the wound started closing, and the code restarted his heart and rebooted his brain. Where was he? What was happening? He felt a searing pain across his forehead and chest, and he let out another whimper of pain from his newly healed lungs.

"Ed!" called Al again, noticing his brother' s tone suddenly change. Why did he sound so serious? Al padded towards the lip the crater, and and then stopped as he saw the jerking body and Ed with his blade out in a ready stance. "Ed, what's happening? Did you do something?" Even as the words left his mouth he had a sinking feeling as to what was going on.

Ed was about to answer, but then the body let out another cry, and suddenly there was a bright green-red light emanating from him.

It had a thick, weighty silence and colored the whole world red, like the rays of the sun. There was something in the sheen, and almost in a trance, Edward wavered, his bladed arm falling slack. Then just as suddenly, it stopped, and the boy lay still.

The world resumed.

* * *

AN: So the homunculi are going from Central… to New Optain… and Ed was already near New Optain… Seriously, guys, what was I supposed to do. Haha, they're still headed East, though heh.

Ah yes. Review or death...Your choice, and I stop channeling Eddie Gizzard hahaha omg how funny.

**Bonus!**

Edward stalked towards Winry's house, bangs covering his eyes. Blood dripped down his face, and his right leg left a small trail of blood. His right arm was non existent, and his left arm was in a cast cradled against his chest. His clothes were torn and ragged. As he finally reached the door, he paused.

And then the door suddenly flung open, cutting the dramatic music and facial angle shots, revealing a very…mad…Winry. She was smiling happily, holding her wrench like a baseball bat. A vein pulsed on her forehead as she processed Ed and her automail.

"Why do you _always_ come back covered in blood?"

AN: I'm sorry, I stole that from Harry Potter. To me it described every moment of FMA.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

* * *

"Are you _serious_!" Screeched Mariah Fleet into her kitchen phone, unconsciously crushing the hand of her child next to her. Tom whimpered piteously, pulling slightly away from his very angry mother. "I let you go fulfill your little dream for _one_ month, and you're telling me that you _can't make it back_?"

"I'm sorry dear, but it's not my fault." Chuckled Mariah's husband nervously. He heard her take a breath on the other end, presumably to resume her diatribe, and he hurried on, "The Military shut down all transportation in the Eastern section because of some terrorist attacks from Ishbal extremists!" He cowered slightly on his end, acutely conscious of the long line formed behind him.

"So the Military _shuts down_ all transportation?" She very almost screamed into the phone, abruptly letting go of Tom in favor of clutching her hair. "How will we get the check?" She whimpered.

Mariah's husband licked his lips nervously. "I'm sorry, dear, but it's not my fault." He said again. He winced at the impatient shifting behind him as a newcomer joined the line and he was pushed. "I'm at the station right now; they just won't let me through." At the silence on the other end, he went on to add quickly, "Just explain it to the taxers, I'm sure they'll understand. Bye, love." He finished up and hung up the phone hurriedly, scurrying out of the booth and letting out a small sigh. He was just as much as confused as Mariah was. He had sent his check on one of the earlier mail trains so his dear could pay her monthly taxes, only to find it back in his temporary mailbox stamped with a red message concerning the temporary banning of all mail. He quickly packed and hurried down to the train station to travel back to his wife, only to find that all trains, roads and other forms of transportations were cut off in the region he was currently residing in. It was quite the unpleasant shock, and not just to him. All over the eastern half of Ametris, people were grumbling and sobbing and otherwise not being very happy with the situation. He sighed. What in the world was the Military doing?

* * *

Lelouch, as a rule, was distinctly unathletic. To survive through the war, he relied on his own stubborn will and Suzaku. But when the walking went tough, mostly Suzaku. So, once he was a teenager, he dedicated the majority of his time to his beloved sister, and any other /intellectual/ challenges that he could find in his life. Most of these challenges involved creative ways of escaping gym class forever to chess gamble. This at anytime did not involve copious amounts of physical exertion other than reaching across a chessboard in an illegal gamble. His form of rebelling did not involve joining the military against his nation's pride and surviving boot camp, but in the form of playing a chess game. Illegally. Back to the point, this meant that Lelouch was uninterested in and/or used to experiencing pain of any kind, and never before had to recover from a long-term wound.

Especially not a very long-term wound in the span of 71 seconds. To put it bluntly: It was Pure Hell.

* * *

Edward and Alphonse watched with increasing uneasiness as the strange boy started regaining consciousness, not untensing even a little bit. They were both settled into a fighting stance, warily staring at the potentially very large threat in front of them. The boy was clearly healing from a fatal wound, and though there was no visible ouroborous yet, the only beings capable of that kind of ability were homunculi. Who knew what kind of power this one had?

* * *

Lelouch came to very slowly this time, his eyes focusing sluggishly. He reluctantly took stock of his body to find, quite to his shock, he felt perfectly fine. Startled into full consciousness, he sat up (no dizziness,) and patted down his chest, staring incredulously at the torn, bloodstained fabric of his once pristine ceremonial robes and the pale, unmarked skin beneath it. He hiding his apprehensiveness, he cautiously felt his back, feeling only more ripped fabric /but no wound./ He felt… really good. No aches or pains, not even a lingering headache.

Slowly, he stood up, testing his legs. Functional. Once again he rubbed where his doubly fatal wound once was. It should have gone straight through one of his lungs, he was sure of it! How was he still alive? The answer could only be a certain regenerative form of immortality. This was no medical miracle. How- a code? Did C.C…., no, his father! That bastard! He could do that? He wouldn't even let him die! And what happened? He didn't remember anything like a code, wouldn't he had known about something like that? Where was he now, anyways… he would have to interrogate C.C accordingly.

For the first time, Lelouch noticed the rough and dusty ground below him, and with sudden panic, snapped his head up.

The first thing he saw was a rock wall. He processed this and gave a quick sweep around his immediate vicinity. It seemed he was in a… crater. Lelouch frowned, because more importantly, there was a small blond boy with some kind of blade attached over his arm and a large suit of armor staring at him from one edge. They looked very hostile, and Lelouch immediately put up his hands in a universal peace position, palms open. When the boy and man in the armor continued glaring at him, he cleared his throat awkwardly. Did these people recognize him as the emperor? Of course they did. He was still in his clothes… Then he decided to say something.

Ed and Al watched as the teen started up, and felt himself all over, apparently not convinced he was still alive. They watched as he jerked up, surveying his surroundings and finally noticed them. Slowly, the man rose his hands into the air, looking calculatingly at them. Ed scowled. Damn tall people, damn homunculi, and damn tall homunculi. There certainly wasn't any other explanation in his book. He shifted slightly, lightly signaling his brother to be ready. The man shook his hair out of his eyes, cleared his throat, and said something unintelligible. Ed raised an eyebrow. The man frowned, and tried again. Still gibberish.

Edward called out, "I don't know what you're saying, bastard, but it better be good!" He sneered. "_Homunculus._"

This got no reaction other than a look of faint surprise. "I'm not in Japan?" He asked. He had a strange accent.

Edward resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and said flatly, "Which one are you?"

The man tilted his head, and without lowering his hands, he said, "My name is Rivalz Cardemonde, if that's what you're asking. " His voice hardened and he stared, unblinkingly at them. "I order you to tell me. Where am I? Who are you?"

Edward narrowed his eyes. "Don't fuck around. Which one are you? We know you're a homunculus, no human being can regenerate like that. How did you just wake up like that? Why are you here?"

Lelouch raised his eyebrows. His mind was whirling, this was wrong on all levels. He had no idea how to explain the regeneration, and his geass wasn't working. He guessed that the code would restrict its use, but it was still worth a shot. It seemed... that the boy didn't recognize him. It was becoming apparent that he was dealing with a possibly delusional boy in a very off situation. "I assure you, I am completely human, albeit very confused. My name is Rivalz Cardemonde, a former student at Ashford Academy in Area 11, formerly Japan. I was last in…" here he paused, deciding to make up a story on the spot, "a Britinnian laboratory in the mountains that I believe was still in Area 11. When the Black Knights broke into the laboratory, I was knocked unconscious. I woke here." He would feign amnesia for the rest, but the boy's golden glare told him that he needed to talk fast and think later. Lelouch offered a weak smile.

There was an indefinite pause. "You have violet eyes." Edward said evenly. He slammed his hands together with a loud smack and slammed them to the ground, simultaneously leaping forward in sync with his brother. Spikes erupted from the ground with crackles of alchemic energy, rushing towards the wide-eyed homunculus. He fully expected the homunculus to reveal himself and fight back. They never enjoyed pain. What he didn't expect was the homunculus to be impaled on one of his spikes, and certainly didn't expect the very human scream of pain echoing from the thing's throat.

* * *

Lelouch looked in blatant disbelief and terror as the ground formed into a deadly trap which was _heading right at his face_. He only got one glance at the lithe boy with the metal gauntlet, which he know realized was a mechanical arm, leap towards him with a concentrated look before once again, he was impaled. To his horror, Lelouch could _sense_ the hatred rolling off in waves from the boy before and he once again was dropped into a world of pain.

* * *

AN: Man, I feel all like a terrible torturer and all now… There are a disproportionate number of reviews on my story. My singular crappy may suck story. !?


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Someone reviewed, actually. Got motivated. –grunts caveman like- That is why I'm posting. Unexpected, mmmm? Right right, here you go.

* * *

Chapter 5

* * *

This time, he woke up in a hospital. Lelouch blinked blearily at the bland ceiling before moaning, softly. His head felt very strange, almost pulsating. He didn't feel any pain, but his current situation probably had not gotten any better. At least he wasn't strapped to the bed, or in some straight-jacket. He felt a sudden unease. Was he? He perfectly remembered the insane little boy who _killed him_, and apparently he wasn't in Area 11- Japan- anymore. Lelouch grit his teeth at his strange situation. Of course he couldn't even be trusted to die correctly. Why not? He hadn't planned this far at all; he expected to be dead by this point!

Damn. Stealthily, he pulled the sheets off his legs, which he noted was covered by a pale yellow hospital gown, and swung to the ground. He frowned at the lack of shoes and clothes, and rubbed his eyes with the heel of his palm. He glanced around. No clocks, no machines, no visible cameras, (not that that said much,) just… white. There was a small window in which light streamed through, the curtains, sheets, and ceiling adorned with a small symbol which he assumed was a hospital logo. Apparently. He was in a hospital, so obviously they didn't recognize him as the Demon King (strange,) and treated him after a small homicidal blonde mortally wounded him. Maybe they were all idiots. This would take a while. Grimacing slightly at the cold floor, he stood up, straightened his undignified hospital gown, and walked out the door. First order of business: find his clothes, for god's sake.

* * *

Edward, on the other hand, was brooding. He was pacing the floor in the hospital lounge, one automail hand propped under his chin, the other tapping his thigh impatiently. He stopped, sighed, then spun sharply on his heel and paced in the other direction. Alphonse watched this display, seated in one of the visitor chairs.

"Nii-san." He ventured. Edward didn't seem to hear him. Al gave a small sigh, slumping his massive shoulders slightly, and then repeated, "Nii-san." A little louder. Ed scrunched an eyebrow, shook his head shortly, and changed directions. Alphonse made a throat-clearing sound. "Nii-san!"

"Yeah, Al?" responded Edward, not missing a beat.

"Do you really think he isn't a homunculus?" There was a pause. Edward didn't answer. He probably hadn't even heard the question in the first place. Al sighed again, echoing. Ed and his bad habits. He tilted his head up to ask the question again when he froze, quite comically for an animated suit of armor.

"_Nii-san_!" Edward looked up sharply, just in time to hear shouts and running footsteps. There was a ringing pause.

Then there were two simultaneous cries of "_**YOU.**_"

* * *

Lelouch casually pulled open the door, and started to walk out, only to be confronted quite possibly by the largest man in existence. He froze immediately. The man was in a blue, distinctly military-esque uniform, maybe seven-feet tall, and had a single lock of blond, _sparkling_ hair curled over his forehead and shadowed, intimidating features. And he _loomed quite well._

There was about two seconds of silence, characterized by Lelouch struggling to maintain his poker face, and the great mammoth of a man looming. And _sparkling_.

Then Lelouch opened his mouth, feinted in one direction, and sprinted to the other. The giant man was caught off-guard, and lunged in the direction of the feint. This gave Lelouch a five-second head start. With his stamina, it wouldn't be enough.

"Wait!" The deep echo resounded down the hallway and on the quite ruffled Lelouch's heels. He'd be damned if he was yet again captured by the military. Who knew what would happen to him? He would just be an incognito citizen, as vaguely planned, and avoid the people he terrorized for the rest of his life. That was fine, this was not.

Strangely, Lelouch didn't seem to be tired. Was this another 'benefit' of the code? Breathing hard nonetheless, Lelouch swept around a corner and opened the first door he saw. Luckily, it seemed to be a stairwell. He pounded down it and out the apparent bottom floor. He heard the huge man behind him bellowing something, and redoubled his pace. Feet smarting, he ducked around another corner and straight into an open room, where he saw someone he very much did not want to see.

"_**YOU.**_"

* * *

Controlling and manipulating emotions and facial expressions was not as easy as one may believe. To ignore and deny instinctive reactions was only achieved by rigorous discipline and an iron or desperate will.

* * *

Edward looked at the- whatever-he-was – in surprise, who looked back with wide violet eyes.

"You killed me!" Was the first thing it said. Edward blinked.

He protested angrily, "What? But-!" and was interrupted by Armstrong wrapping his meaty arms around the other whatever-he-was and squeezing.

"I've captured him!" He said in an almost sing-song tone, pink sparkles radiating off his cranium.

"Get off of me you stupid oaf!" Said the now angry violet-eyed boy, struggling quite pathetically in his arms.

Alphonse proverbially blinked. He had stood up when 'Rivalz' had barged into the room, ready to combat or capture. The completely unexpected statement and subsequent arrival of Armstrong had slightly derailed him.

"Major," he said, "weren't you guarding his room?" Rivalz momentarily stopped struggling and glared at him.

"Guarding?" he hissed. "How dare you-" he shook his head and then said, a bit more calmly, "where am I?"

"Why aren't you dead?" replied Edward bluntly. His usual first impressions check had beeped this creature onto his 'asshole' radar.

"Excuse me?" articulated Lelouch, irritably, "I believe you're the one who stabbed me for _no apparent reason_!" This boy was annoyingly reminiscent of Kallen. Fortunately, also as easy to redirect.

"Reason? You're a homunculus! Why do you assholes keep showing up and following me?"

Lelouch, stressed and unable to deal with the sudden change of having absolutely no control, snapped. "What the _hell_ are you people talking about! Where. Am. I?" He attempted a step forward, was grabbed tighter by Armstrong, then settled for a piercing glare instead.

Alphonse looked back and for the between them like a tennis match and spoke up. "You really don't know what a homunculus is?"

Lelouch redirected his glare to the hulking armor. "No." He grit out. "I do not. I believe I told you this multiple times before, I have never seen you in my life, I have no idea who you are or where I am and I _demand_," his voice reflexively gained an imperious tone, "that you release me at once!" He stood as regally as he could and glared down at the offending pipsqueak. Whom promptly turned an interesting purple and exploded.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT YOU COULDN'T SEE HIM WITH AN ADVANCED TELESCOPE TWO FEET AWAY!"

To his credit, Lelouch's expression barely changed. He had regained his apathetic expression, with only a momentary eyebrow twitch to betray his unpleasantly surprised irritation. "As I was saying before this conversation got completely irrelevant," He said distinctly as if talking with a particularly dull child, "you have no grounds to hold me and I demand that you _release me at once_."

Armstrong stood twinkling behind him, impassive and continuing to easily restrain the thin boy. He didn't know exactly what was going on, but despite the Elric brother's young ages, they knew what was dangerous and what was not, one of the few to be yet uncorrupted by the twisted _modus operandi_ of the military. He certainly wouldn't trust the mysterious, apparently non-human boy over the Elrics, of course. His sparkles and already firm grip intensified with his satisfied demeanor. Though, as Lelouch felt the demeaning restraints tighten behind him, he finally lost patience.

Instinctively trying to activate his geass and feeling the unfamiliar rush again instead, he tilted his head up and behind him and commanded, "Let me go!"

Major Alex Louis Armstrong's eyes widened as the last thing he saw was glaring violet eyes before he convulsed as he sunk to the ground, hands clawing at his face.

"Major!" he heard distantly as _something_ dragged him deep into his mind.

[Armstrong was once again a boy. He was shaking as the intensity of the alchemical reaction ate at his strength as he struggled to control the connection. Alchemical electricity flared uncontrollably around him as the ground cracked and heaved. His bookish mentor looked from the side, worried and unable to help. Or stop him. "Halt the reaction, Alex! You won't prove anything this way!" Alex gritted his teeth and slowly, oh so very slowly, pulled yellow energy pulsing brightly in his subconscious together, runes backlighting on the makeshift glove-gauntlets he had stolen from his father's vaults. He _would_ prove he was an Armstrong! He learned all the techniques, he had studied so hard, retained his fitness and he _would_ succeed where his father failed, prove that he could use the passed down techniques of his family! He let out a wild yell as he felt the circles inscribed near his palms click together, settling in his mind as he envisioned tons of rock and earth rise around him, mold to his will. It was exhilarating. It was amazing. He would have laughed as he almost forgot the fatigue of his body, it was right there- Then there was the backlash. Pain violently lanced up his arm as the rising fluid earth around him abruptly dropped and all the energy flared uncontrollably and he spun into the air and landed at the side, not even listening to his now very furious mentor as the bitter shame of failure burned through him, his arm bones shattered and never to be natural bone again-]

[The unbearable pain of the alloyed metal as it was reconnected into his muscle with the help of brightly sparking healing alchemy as he screamed and screamed-]

[The small Ishvalan girl limp in his arms as he turned his tear-stained face up to the impassive Mustang and screamed how it was simply _murder_ and there was nothing justifiable about this-]

[The sting of betrayal as he realized his military was not a shining pillar of order and justice as he believed his whole life, his world crumbling as he raised the wall- the old and honorable power that he had finally mastered being used for _this_-]

[_She's dead! Gasping as her sweet face gazing lovingly towards him as warm green eyes closed and she was dead dead_ dead_because of_ him-]

[The hurt as he saw every face he had ever killed, creeds that he had broken in his change of loyalty-]

[Brokenly holding up a near-suicidal friend, a dead soldier walking- "Don't do it, Mustang,"]

["_Tell them to remember me like a demon, to change the world for the better-"]_

[The stress of deception, both inside and out as he felt the constant reminder of reaching too high-]

["_You would even sell out your best friend for rank?" "Yes."]_

[A small boy named Alex crying over a deep cut as he fell on the road and a piece of glass-]

Terrible memories and hallucinations raced across Armstrong's mind, forcing him to relive every bad experience he had ever suffered, trapping his mind in a cycle of fear and helplessness. Tears dripped down his face.

Lelouch, Alphonse, and Edward froze in shock for mere moments, then Edward lunged at Lelouch, grabbing the neck of the flimsy hospital gown and hearing it ripping as he yanked the so-called Rivalz closer. "What did you do to him!" He growled into the boy's face.

"I don't know!" Lelouch snapped back, his hand over his left eye which was still tingling disturbingly.

"Like hell you don't!" Edward yelled.

Lelouch gave him an incredulous glare. "I DON'T KNOW!" He screamed, partially lying, back at the short boy. Edward decked him in the jaw. With a rip, only a scrap of pale yellow remained in Edward's automail hand as Lelouch fell to the floor. Utterly shocked, he spat out a globule of blood before feeling his code starting to set in and heal his jaw. For a moment, he held his hand to his jaw with the phantom pain. Then turning to glare at the seething boy above him, he bit out icily, "What, exactly, would you have me do?"

"Fix what you did to him!" Edward screamed at the boy below him. _Damned_ homunculi always trying to kill everyone in sight. "I'll _destroy_ you if he dies!" 'Rivalz' looked furious.

Before he could respond, Alphonse called out-"Brother!" He was hunched over the shuddering major, huge hand gently but firmly restraining the man from hurting himself. Armstrong let out another heart-breaking yell. Edward made a split-second decision as his eyes flickered between what he thought was the homunculus on the floor and his screaming friend. He kneeled near Armstrong and gently lifted his face and started to probe his head to see what the matter was. As soon as Edward saw his eyes though, something seemed to jerk him forward. He let out a startled yelp as he frantically backed away from Armstrong, giving his head a violent rub.

"Brother? Brother? What's wrong?"

Mumbling curses, he called back, "Don't look into his eyes, Al. It does…something." Growling, he turned towards the homunculus, who had now scrambled up and was across the room, eyebrows furrowed as he assessed the situation. Lelouch believed he knew at least a little of what was happening. C.C's code had come with a special ability to make a person lose his mind with the application of touch, Lelouch seemed to have gained a similar ability. But whereas hers was touch, his seemed to be eye-contact. Another slightly changed aspect seemed to be that whatever his gaze did, it didn't freeze the person up as hers did, and- Lelouch gave a slight frown and rubbed his forehead- something seemed to be gained in transfer. Images flickered across the back of his mind as he saw scenes of places he'd never been and people in military blue in a foreign land. And what was that power these people kept displaying? –_Alchemy_- the thought whispered through his mind easily. What was this?... Perhaps… memories of-

Lelouch grimaced and shrunk back as he saw the little brat starting to stalk towards him again. Just great. Lelouch heard yells and running footsteps in the hall and scowled in earnest. This situation was rapidly spiraling out of his control, if he even had any. Talking quickly, he said to the wary boy, "I think I might know how to-

There was a resounding crash as two military officers broke into the room before almost tripping over Armstrong. The two men –_Second Lieutenant Havoc and Warrant Officer Falman how did he know this?-_quickly recovered and instantly pointed their rifles at Lelouch who refused to put his hand up and instead straightened proudly against the wall, hoping that they wouldn't shoot first and ask questions later.

"Boss, what's going on?" Shot the blond man_-Havoc_- with the cigarette to the kid- _Major_ _Elric_-.

"I think he's a homunculus –_an echo of a childish voice and childish pictures_- and the bastard did something to Armstrong. Don't look at his eyes-" and instantly the two officers lowered their gazes to his chest, guns cocking.

"No! I don't know what a homunculus –_bright blades and dripping blood_- is and I'm just trying to-" He broke off in favor for a strangled cry of pain as –_Falman's_- gun went off straight into his shoulder and he staggered with the pain of it, and the next thing he knew he was being spun around and something cold clicked around his wrists as his arms were pulled back, and oh god his shoulder hurt-! and something roughly was shoved into his mouth, and yanked over his eyes. He let out a muffled sound of protest and pain as his code ejected the foreign material of the bullet and started to heal the shattered bone. The last thing he heard was a deep voice and a horrible pain explode at the side of his head and he silently swore to himself he would never let this happen again.

* * *

Mustang's eyebrows were furrowed, staring hard at the packet of paper clutched in his hand. This was a rare occurrence, and if Hughes were still alive, he would have probably popped in and taken a picture. For the tenth time, Colonel Roy Mustang cursed Edward Elric's poor handwriting and delicate motor skills and continued trying to decipher the ragtag report that was starting to grate on his eyes.

"Fullmetaal…" he groaned. He looked away from the paper a moment, massaging his forehead. They had run 'Rivalz Cardemonde' (courtesy of Alphonse) through every criminal log and every possible spelling, with no results. Not that he had expected any. If that boy was really a homunculus, Rivalz Cardemonde wouldn't even exist. The name sounded strangely foreign, and the quick backstory he had offered back at New Optain (and wasn't _that_ a nightmare to clear up and what did they do to the _train_?) also implied that he wouldn't be in any official records. The homunculus was locked up very tightly in one of the private holding facilities underground that had been enhanced just for that purpose, under strict lock and key and smuggling the limp boy- no, homunculus- but there was no ouroborous, out of the hospital had been a _nightmare_- Mustang groaned again – the publicity would be terrible. What would this say to his higher ups and those other preying idiots just waiting for him to slip up-

_**BANG!**_

The muttering in the room instantly fell silent for a moment, all heads swiveling towards the wide-eyed Mustang before rolling their eyes and returning back to their respective conversations or work.

Mustang slowly put down the sheaf of papers, silently rubbing his ear. "Was that really necessary, Lieutenant?" He remarked drily. A bullet hole smoked behind him on the wall, next to many other older and painted over reminders of the past.

"Yes, sir." Was the flat answer. She had seen him starting to mix his priorities again. Sometimes, he swore the woman was psychic.

"Well then," he said. Back to business. What else could he- a mental light bulb lit up in his head. Sheska! Of course! Why didn't he think of that sooner!

Hawkeye smiled inwardly as she saw the Colonel instantly walk out of the office with a distracted look on his face. Two seconds later, she heard him order a few of the new recruits to secure a private line with Sheska in a crisp voice. He walked back in and picked up the report again, just in time to see Havoc rush in, momentarily catch his breath, then snap his heels together and salute. "Sir! The homunculus is awake!" Mustang looked up sharply, gave a quick nod to Hawkeye as a mental order to follow him and brushed past Havoc as he went out the door. It was strange that a homunculus took so much time to recover from wounds...

"Notify me when they find Sheska," he told Havoc as he plucked the clipboard out of the man's hands and walked towards the secret door that led to the holding facilities. He paused just before exiting. "And… leave the dog with Feury, Lieutenant." Riza looked down at Black Hayate and pointed silently to the small, gentle technological expert. The dog whined quietly before obediently trotting over to Feury and sitting. Hawkeye gave a small smile and started to catch up to Mustang's back.

* * *

_Lelouch was gazing lazily across the strange empty landscape full of colorful swirls and floating bits of land. His legs were dangling into the void, and he couldn't bring himself to care. It was just a dream, after all. It occurred to him that he should figure out where he was._

_With a small sigh, he swung his legs up and rose to his feet. Turning around, he found – with an unpleasant jolt- that he was on the platform that he had ultimately killed his parents on. He wrinkled his nose and started to pace the length of the floating platform. Peering over the other side, he was entirely unsurprised when he turned around and saw C.C standing there, staring at him._

_::Lelouch:: she said, his name echoing around him._

_He acknowledged her with a tilt of his head. ::*****:: A soft whine curled through the air, obscuring his answer._

_There was a comfortable silence. A wisp of color curled around Lelouch's curious gaze before fading away._

_::You are-:: C.C began, and then she was gone. Not gone, more like obscured as a bright light spread from where she had been standing. It was vaguely golden, and a breeze of fresh forest air teased Lelouch's hair before he found he was now standing on a small bluff: where he had played with Suzaku and Nunnally so many years ago. He blinked._

_/Shirley?/ Red hair swirled and sad emerald eyes sparkled as she gazed at him. She dipped her head, and she didn't say a word. A sigh of wind and-_

_"No wait!" She started to fade again as Lelouch reached out his hand, frantically reaching for one of his biggest regrets. _

* * *

The force of his own action startled him awake, lying on a hard mattress with his hard extended above him. Slowly, he sat up, curling his hand into his chest as the starched sheets slid off his chest. It was all just a dream. Just a dream. He stayed in that position a moment before remembering he was in a very bad situation and looking around. He processed the veritable prison cell. There was a one-way viewing glass at one end of the wall, and the bed was bolted to the floor. His eyebrow raised as he saw he was now dressed in some kind of prison suit, a bland tan color track suit. Not long term, no toilet. He grimaced. He _hoped_ no long term. He could do no more until more data was supplied to him. Sighing, he sat on his cot and stared directly at the viewing pane and settled in for a short wait.

* * *

Edward abruptly sneezed, startling Al. He nudged his nose roughly with his arm, then resumed glaring at the boy sitting casually in the room. Even though they couldn't find an ouroborous on him, in fact there _were_ some scars, Ed still didn't believe that he wasn't a homunculus. He was probably just a new type, or something. He didn't trust him. More importantly, he really didn't like him. He glared through the viewing pane at 'Rivalz,' who was currently sitting on his bed gazing boredly back at him. What an asshole. He scowled at the glass as he waited for Mustang. They had to do this together, and plus Al wouldn't be happy if they just bust in there to interrogate him. Which was why Al was restraining him at that moment.

There was a metallic sigh. "Ed… I said don't even think about doing anything rash. Maybe he was telling the truth." Edward made a dismissive hmphing sound, and Al's eyes dimmed in exasperation. Sometimes, he wondered how his wonderful brother could be so brilliant and so thick. Havoc had just left to alert Mustang that Rivalz was awake. After a few hours, Armstrong's strange bout had subsided, but he had looked shaken. He still hadn't told anyone the entirety of what he had seen beyond: "It's not important to the security of our country or you. Just don't look into his eyes. It's not… pleasant." Unsatisfied, Mustang had extracted a promise that he would be told later. There was the sound of clomping boots heading down the brightly lit hallway and Mustang interrupted Edward from his one-sided glaring contest. Mustang stopped at the doorway of the room, blinking as he processed the situation. Edward watched him warily.

A slow smirk spread across Mustang's handsome features, causing Edward to instantly scowl and shove away from Al. "Don't even say anything, Mustang." He told his superior grumpily.

"I wasn't going to." Said Mustang, completely dignified as he stepped into the room, Hawkeye following like a silent shadow. He paused at the window, staring at the very bored looking prisoner. "So this is the cause of all this trouble, hmm?" He tapped the glass, causing the boy to look up and gaze steadily at Mustang, as if he knew exactly where he was. The would-be homunculus looked shockingly feminine. Mustang smirked. He casually flicked on the microphone built under the glass pane and cleared his throat into it. He saw the boy sit up straighter as he located the source of the sound, a small speaker in the top corner of the room, and waited. Let the interrogation begin.

* * *

Envy, Lust, and Gluttony had tracked the source of the explosion back near East of Central. Even through the cleared red tape and carefully misleading paper work, Envy had threatened enough bystanders to determine that the Elrics had gotten there before him and had transported some kind of 'dark-haired' boy to a hospital. By the time the location of said-hospital had been realized, Envy had been in a very bad mood. He had been forced to impersonate several officers over the past several hours and was simply _not in the mood_. If he found the source of this damn chase, he would have some…_fun_ with this boy before handing him over to Father. A sadistic grin spread across is face. Oh _yes_. That would cheer him up.

"Envy," said a low velvet voice, naturally seductive and sharp as her weapons.

"What!" He growled back, snapped out of his fantasy.

"Our mystery boy is confirmed to be with Mustang's group."

"Ah ha," said Envy in satisfaction. A razor sharp grin, if it could be called that, spread across his features. "Finally. Let's pay our little friends a visit, shall we?" Still grinning, he morphed into the form of Hughes, complete with unrimmed glasses and three unsheathed throwing knives. "This guy is in intelligence, and he knows the Mustang upstart. Perfect, am I right?" He licked down a knife. Gluttony didn't reply, sucking his thumb as he stared up at Lust for direction. He had just finished with the hospital nurse that had been briefly attending to the mystery boy.

"Hn," commented Lust, sounding disinterested. "Don't get too excited, Envy, we just have to figure out what's going on and if the boy is a threat to us."

"Oh, well that's no fun!" Envy, still in Hughes' form, sharply turned on his heel and slid into the driver's seat of the military car. Lust sighed, knowing there wasn't much she could do, and filed it in her head for her report to Father.

"Come, Gluttony." She commanded as she gracefully slid into the passenger's seat. Gluttony loped obligingly into the back and pulled his hood up at Lust's lazy glance. Still chuckling darkly, Envy wrenched the key a little too hard and started to speed towards Mustang's office.

Oh, this was going to be _good_.

* * *

Mustang sat back again with a sigh. It was well into eight, now, and he was sure everyone in the office had headed back to their barracks already. The notification for Sheska had came and went, with a short reprieve. It had been confirmed that there was no mention of a 'Rivalz Cardemonde' or the physical description of the boy in any martial court cases or jail records. Exasperating. The questioning had proved to be quite intriguing, if not particularly informative. After many sly slide-ins and repetitive questioning, he had ascertained that this boy did not know anything about practical alchemy or even the military, and though this was fascinating in itself, it still did not explain much about the boy's, Rivalz?, current situation.

"So you don't know how you simply appeared in apparently-" he glanced at the pile of bloody white clothes to his left-"intricate ceremonial robes in the middle of New Optain, which you do not know where in fact exists-" here he paused to hear the boy's weary nod of affirmation, "in an intense alchemic reaction where all electricity for many miles was simply disappeared, and minimal memory of how you came to be... nearly immortal?" He finished skeptically. He didn't even start on the mysterious powers. That had been the subject of interrogation for much of the time already. They might have to use more extreme measures later if the stupid boy wouldn't open up. He had to know _something_ about his own power… but he may be telling the truth. Roy crushed this thought ruthlessly.

The delicate looking boy narrowed his eyes at the Colonel's tone and responded icily, "I believe I am from… a very distant land, apparently, that speaks a completely different language as this – Ametris." There was barely a stumble.

"Speak it."

Lelouch had reluctantly gathered by now, much to his chagrin and disbelief, that he was in at least some kind of isolated country, because he knew of no place that was untouched by Britannia and it's empire. Or he had skipped to an alternate universe or something. He paused. That actually sounded plausible with all the ridiculous events that transpired directly after his death, and the uncomfortable knowledge bubbling like a siren's call in the back of his mind. This was either good or bad, or both. There was nothing to lose. If there was really a place in the world, with this extent of organized military and strange …hmph, _Alchemy_, then it would have been taken… or crushed. The 'second world' theory was the only one that fit. He shrugged with an apathetic look. He knew several languages. This was ridiculous. He decided on familiar Japanese.

"耐えられない馬鹿である。の愚かな質問はあなたの無能な部下がないとても私を殺したら起こることを持たれていなくて。私は再発を無学の愚か者すぐに要求する。"He rattled off quickly.

"That is… Xingese." Murmured Mustang. He flicked the microphone back on. "Alright, you're from Xing? How did you know Ametrisian?"

"I don't remember." Said Lelouch with an unreadable expression. _Xingese_?

_Of course_. Thought Mustang, irritated. _Ah well. Time to call it a night_. He almost gave in to a languishing stretch before belatedly remembering that the Elrics were still waiting outside. He winced. He had almost forgotten about them. Carefully, he closed the notes he was taking in his folder and tucked it under his arm. He leaned into the mic again, not taking his eyes off the non-homunculus.

"Well then Mr. Cardemonde, I bid you good night." He said wryly. He noted in amusement the brief flash of irritation that scuttled across Rivalz face. He hadn't lost it, then. Before the boy could respond, he flicked off all the lights and stepped outside, Hawkeye following and closing the door behind him.

"Well?" he heard a very annoyed Elric question. He didn't turn around.

"Nothing. You can question him in the morning." He then started walking briskly down the hall, ignoring the frustrated groan and slam of automail meeting wall behind him.

"Come on, Al." He heard an aggravated voice say, and then the sounds of Alphonse calming Edward down as they went down a separate hallway to their temporary lodgings until they took off again. He shook his head briefly, and then straightened his shoulders. He turned once to nod at Riza's slightly sympathetic face, and then continued on to his office.

_Was it over? It was over! Yes!_ _Thank_ Heavens_!_

As the so-called Colonel Mustang was wrapping up his interrogation, the train of thought that was running through Lelouch's mind was very relieved. As soon as they were assured that he was no threat, he could finally get out of this damned place! …hopefully. Lelouch sighed. Who was he kidding? They would just question him further and even if he told the truth, which he could not, no one would ever believe him. He smiled cynically. At least this situation couldn't last forever, which he probably would. Geass and Code were too much for the world, and would only lead to conflict. As his own father and he himself had proved that all it took was as single geass before one could take over the entire world. At the thought of his father, he scowled into the dark. He quickly wiped it off his face in case there was a hidden camera in his cell. Judging by the mobile arm he had briefly seen on –_Edward Elric's automail_- false arm, and the strange memory stream that was slowly settling in the back of his mind, the technology for that might be possible. He quickly turned away to face the wall as he tried to settle on the hard cot that he was so unaccustomed too. He frowned into the blanket. He had had worse conditions… and what happened to him now didn't matter. At least here and now he didn't have to play a maniacal tyrant. Hopefully Suzaku and Nunally were holding things up in his world… and he started to drift off into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

Mustang had cleared up the last of his unavoidable paperwork for that day (namely, furiously smuggling stacks of paper into his desk when Hawkeye was distracted,) and was finally ready to go home when a sound distracted him. A firm knock sounded on the wood of his office door and he absently wondered if one of his subordinates had forgotten something as he hurriedly pulled on his coat, before Riza, who was suspiciously reviewing his finished paperwork, noticed him.

"Come in," His deep voice sounded casually.

The door swung open, and there was a small _wrong_ silence. Something tugging in his gut, Mustang glanced up only to instantly blanch. "YOU-!" and there was a mad cackle and a gleam of silver flying through the air.

* * *

_"Ha," said C.C wistfully. "I see. But-" she tilted her head back to glance at him. "You may want to wake u-"_

Lelouch jerked up. For a disoriented moment, he forgot where he was as he waved one of his hands into a wall. Sharply shaking off the tendrils of one of the first pleasant dreams he had had in a while (_Nunnally and Suzaku, through golden eyes, making peace with a brimming-with-pride Ougi the leader of a free Japan,_)he scanned his 'room' to see what had woken him up. He didn't have to wait long. There was another muffled thump, then some scratching. Slightly concerned, he slipped off his bed and crouched near it on the ground. Lelouch had gathered that he was in a secret place, there shouldn't be anyone here. Secure, in a twisted way. Hmmm. There was just unnerving silence. Lelouch crouched tensely, still not ready to go back to sleep. _Paranoia_, he heard an amused certain witch's voice echo in his head. His mouth twisted for a second. Shadows of his past. He wasn't truly insane yet, was he? One minute passed, maybe a few more. Warily, he scanned the unresponsive darkness one last time before starting to relax. Maybe-

And then a giant crash shook the room. Lelouch fell back as plaster and ceiling abruptly rained down on him. Strangely, there didn't seem to be as much rubble as there might have been.

Two shadowy figures dropped in from the new entrance in the ceiling. One tall and graceful, the other an unidentifiable blob still. Lelouch was backed against the wall, eyes wide, as the sudden moonlight illuminated the strange scene.

"Hello, human." Purred the tall figure, who he now saw was probably an attractive woman. She had long, flowing hair and some kind of dress. "Just stay still now, and this won't hurt a bit." Lelouch raised an eyebrow and shrunk back into the wall. She gave off an aura he didn't like, and 'hello, human,' never boded well. His eyes widened as he heard a _swish_ of something headed towards him and two small cracks squarely beside his head. He froze as he felt two razor sharp _somethings_ on either side of his neck.

"I said, don't move." He heard the deadly intent like velvet in her voice, all too familiar using it himeself.

He swallowed, keeping his face impassive. He didn't feel like dying again, and this military skirmish obviously was more major then he thought. Alchemy. He should have guessed as soon as he had heard it. This was not good at all.

* * *

By the time Mustang had freed himself from his overcoat, three clear shots rang out into the air. The whizzing throwing knives abruptly veered from their course. One dropped point-down into the ground and the two others had just missed Mustang, instead impaling themselves in the walls behind him.

"Shit!" Mustang spat, furious. The figure of Hughes, he was ashamed to admit, had caught him completely off-guard. Of course the damn 'Rivalz Cardemonde' was a homunculus! He should have forseen this-

A crash, and more importantly a feminine yelp, interrupted his mental rant that was currently trying to take stock of where he had tucked away his damn – ah.

He finally pulled his gloves from his back pocket and stole a glance from the side of the desk he was currently sheltering behind to aim. Four quick snaps in succession rang out as he targeted Envy's eyes and vital areas. That was all he could pull off before Envy, finally no longer as Hughes, shrieked in pain and lashed out viciously in his direction as something vaguely whip-like and_not_ human. Mustang's eyes widened as part of the ceiling and falling wall collapsed on him, immediately diving under his sturdy oak desk. This claim was suddenly contested as a ton of concrete fell directly upon it, cleaving it in two and crushing Mustang's leg.

"AAAARGH!"

"Colonel! Guh-" She was quickly cut off as she was slammed into a wall. She fell limply to the ground.

"HAWKEYE!"

"Can't hurt our precious sacrifice." Snarled Envy with a nasty grin, finally recovering and turning away from the helpless Mustang, "but you're _girlfriend_ here isn't required alive!" Inhumanely fast, he flipped towards her and extended an arm that morphed into an evil looking snake that hissed as it quickly pinned her arms to her side and _squeezed_. There was a sickening crack and blood forced its way up Hawkeye's throat as she couldn't even scream.

"NO!" Mustang cried, eyes wide and furious. Teeth gritted, he tried to drag himself from under his former desk, looking for something, anything, to help him. Needless to say, he was surprised at what he got.

* * *

Lelouch mentally berated himself as he ran straight to the center of the loud noises. What was he _doing_? He shook the thought away with ease of long practice and admitted to himself that no matter the image he had formerly portrayed, he did not enjoy mindless killing. It had been necessary to cement his picture as a heartless tyrant, but here, apparently in a whole different world, it would be different. It had to be different. His teeth were set in a snarl as he lunged through the splintered door and practically gave himself whiplash as he grabbed the laughing figure and whirled him around to look him in the face.

"Who the fuck are-"

"I command you to stand down!" Lelouch yelled, reaching for the icy ambient power around him, in him and channeled straight through his eyes, which briefly flashed a deep red that burned his eyeballs. Lelouch hissed in pain, this was probably not the way it was meant to be used. The geass sigil starkly visible for a moment in his eyes as his psyche crashed headfirst into Envy's. It was a war of wills, of hopes, of dreams.

There was no contest. Envy was simply a manifestation of ill will and deadly sadism, twisting his being and trying to fill the void of his soul. He instantly started screaming as he felt his very being starting to fall apart as Lelouch's violet-red eyes bored into his mind. As Lelouch processed what Envy was, Envy stared back into the void. Memories and feelings that were never his started to flash and stutter in his mind as he twisted and writhed in Lelouch's grip. Something that might have been blood started to leak from his body and dissipate into the atmosphere and Lelouch felt himself recoiling at the repellent being as Envy desperately shifted from form to form as he thrashed against Lelouch's eyes. Even through the pain of the wounds Lelouch was sustaining, he forged on. He wasn't even sure what he was doing anymore, just grimly holding on in the real world and flickering like hallucinations through everything else. It was like he was locked away, that this was something only fighting with a portion of his mind. He thought he was in the World of C, he was standing beneath a broken Gate in a pure white void- Their battle was interrupted, though, as long, razor sharp nails pierced through Lelouch's head, breaking his concentration and shattering their connection. A small pathetic lump on the ground that was Envy squirmed and slowly, slowly formed into a ragged and old black cat. "You haven't seen the last of us, /Lelouch./" He hissed venomously before fleeing with the quick-footed Lust into the shadows.

And there they were left, a desperately injured Lelouch and shuddering Hawkeye with a stunned Mustang in a flattened former office room, paperwork still fluttering around him like so much shredded confetti.

* * *

AN: nitpicking is good.

So the flashes were references to whatever word corresponds to a memory, like Ed drawing (really bad) pictures of Envy and Lust to show Armstrong, and whatever else I could dredge up from memory.

Don't wory about Lelouch's eye thing, I know what's up. Right now all you need to know is that it is a two way road! Danger to the beholder as well as the victim.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

* * *

Lelouch's scowl would have shocked any of his many... _enthusiastic_ fans back at Ashford Academy. But he wasn't there, and they probably were burning all pictures of him, so it was irrelevant.

He was crushed between very disgruntled Edward Elric and a door, in the most ridiculously outdated car he ever had the dubious honor of sitting in. It should have been in a museum, for god's sake! A crackling engine, wheelcaps, and wound windows. _Wound windows! _Preposterous_._

For an advanced military country, Ametris didn't seem to be up to par. Lelouch let the thought float away, instead looking out the window. He had absolutely no idea where he was. As soon as the humunculouses had left, the aftershock had been broken by the urgency of getting Hawkeye to Mustang's house. With short, distrustful glances, Mustang had bundled Lelouch into the vehicle along with the unconscious Hawkeye with strict orders to keep her still. The memories from Envy and Gluttony were still flickering in the back of his mind, but he couldn't examine them now. On the way, they had called the Elric brothers, thusly leading to his current predicament.

He frowned darkly at the passing landscape, just empty fields and the occasional house. He didn't have a clue to where he was, and what was going on, and he didn't like it. It shouldn't have shocked him on how much it affected him, but even to the end, he was so used to being in control, or at least having a strong goal. Now, with his mission done, and with an incapability to do_anything_ more, he felt... lost.

Edward, in fact, couldn't believe he was cozying up with the would-be homunculus in the backseat of _Mustang's_ car, Al not fitting anywhere but the front. Yanked out of bed by Mustang's succinct, terse call, He and Al had quickly left the barracks to the gate, where Mustang had halted to let them in, and much to Edward's alarm, _the homunculus_ and a bloody Hawkeye.

"The hell, Mustang?" he spluttered indignantly. "What's _he_-" and then he registered Hawkeye. "What did you do to her!" He yelled, lunging for the boy.

"Major!" barked Mustang. Edward hesitated in surprise. _Major_? "Get in, Fullmetal." Said Mustang in a calmer voice.

"What? No! Explain this!"

"We have to get to my house, _now_. I'll explain on the way." Noticing Edwards pointed glare towards the indifferent 'Rivalz', he snapped, "Not now. Get in!"

With reluctance and distaste, Edward got in. Al was slightly more pragmatic, simply stepping into the passenger seat with little argument.

"So, what happened?" demanded Edward, completely ignoring the humonculous and instead examining Hawkeye. It seemed that she had internal damage, broken ribs perhaps. "She needs to go to a hospital!"

"The Homunculuses." Without even bothring to look, he knew Edward had sent him a sharp glance and Al had turned his head in interest. "Envy. Lust. They came to attack, something to do with Rivalz-"

"My name is Lelouch." Cut in a smooth voice. They all swiveled to look at the boy, who was staring out the window.

"Lelouch?" Mustang said lightly, trying to disguise the tightness in his voice.

"Yes. Lelouch... Lamperouge. Rivalz was a false name." There was silence in the car for a few moments, but before anyone- Fullmetal- could question this, Mustang continued-

"Lelouch, then. The cell was completely destroyed, a huge hole in the ceiling. Hawkeye and I were saved by- Lelouch. Something's wrong, we can't take Hawkeye to a hospital without explanation. I have a trained doctors at one of my places. We can-"

"Wait, _what_? Envy? They came to rescue him? Why is he here?"

"No, they came to destroy me." Said Lelouch flatly.

"What?" said Edward blankly.

Lelouch scoffed, turning to face Edward, who was still cradling Hawkeye. "For a genius, your intelligence is quite lacking."

"What the _hell_? Who do you think you are?" Edward snapped back, not daring to move from his supportive position.

Lelouch laughed dersively. Now /that/ was a familiar question. "I'm not a homunculus, if you're wondering. I have a soul, and I have no philosopher's stone."

"Wait, wait, wait. Philosopher's Stone? Mustang, what the hell did you tell him?"

Mustang's grip tightened on the wheel. "Nothing. I told him nothing."

Hawkeye moaned, sweat dripping down her face. "_Fuck_. Step on it, Mustang!" You didn't _move_ someone with broken ribs, goddamnit!

"We're almost there." said Mustang, but complied.

"So what are you?" Al asked.

Lelouch blinked, then said, "Alphonse Elric. Younger brother of Edward Elric. Son of Trisha unimportant and Von Hohenheim, the first. Specializes in less detail specific earth, mineral, and water materials. Bound to suit of armor by blood seal via Edward Elric. Intelligence: high. Ability: high. Threat: high. The fourth sacrifice. Kindly personality, likes cats, and-" Lelouch snapped his mouth shut, looking disturbed.

There was a beat of stunned silence, and Edward exploded. "How do you know-"

"Argh!" Lelouch clutched his head and reared back, banging his head on the backseat. "Edward Elric. Relations to Alphonse- ugh, Major, boss, I hate him! I'll kill him! Always in the way- STOP IT!" Lelouch's face was set in a snarl as he shut his mouth, his hands firmly sealing it shut.

"Shit." articulated Mustang. He slammed his foot on the break. "We're here!" In an unbelievably short amount of time, they were all out of the car, Hawkeye gently handled into the mansion-like house. Lelouch followed, his head clutched in his hands as the suppressed memories threatened to overwhelm him.

.:Lelouch:. he heard, and suddenly the wave of memories swayed back. _What_? he blinked, and realized that Roy Mustang, Edward and Alphonse Elric were all staring at him.

He glanced around, and realized that he had followed them into an empty room. His headache had stopped him from concentrating on where he was going. After a moment, he relaxed. It's not as if he had anything to hide, anyway. Not here. He was now certain he was actually in a whole different world.

"What happened to Miss Hawkeye?" He asked. There were a few raised eyebrows, and Mustang said, "We put her with the doctor, ... Lelouch. Don't you remember? Only a few moments ago."

Oh. "Forgive my inattention." he rolled out automatically.

Edward snorted. "Whatever. What are you?" he said bluntly.

Knowing there was no way to delay it any longer, Lelouch struggled for an answer. "I- I'm... just a man. No, I'm- there was-" Scowling, Lelouch shut his mouth. He never stuttered. "I am," he said carefully, "simply human. Lelouch Lamperouge." He smiled humorously. There was no need to tell them any more and get locked up again.

"Riiiight," drawled Ed, "which is why you can not die?"

Mustang twitched. "And what did you do to that humunculous, Envy. That was no human feat."

Lelouch lifted his chin, and slightly shrugged. Edward's eyes narrowed. The... whatever-he-called-himself didn't seem to be violent, but he could just be leading them on, or even be part of a whole elaborate setup. He had hurt Armstrong, too.

"You don't have their mark," Mustang said at length, "which is the only reason I believe you."

Lelouch shrugged again, then said, "You are Colonel Roy Mustang, youngest Colonel of your age. Involved in the Ishval Massacre and promoted for your deeds. May be romantically involved with Second Liutenant Riza Hawkeye. Alchemy specializing in-"

In a flash, Mustang's gloved fingers were centimeters from his nose. "How do you know that." He said in a low voice.

Lelouch glared, and said nothing. After a few tense moments, Mustang lowered his hand. "I," said Lelouch, "am on your side. When I saw the plan that those humunculi were forming, we have to stop it. It cannot be allowed."

Edward stepped forward. "What are you saying? You know what those bastards are planning?"

Lelouch gave a quick nod. "Not all of it, I just managed to catch flashes from their consciousness before it moved on," seeing the new interest flare in their eyes, he continued, "I don't know exactly what this country is, or even what alchemy is, but I know that many lives are in danger, and I cannot let myself do nothing. You, the FullMetal Alchemist, are currently their biggest worry. Something about a Philosopher's Stone."

Edward's eyes shone with greed, and he grinned, razor sharp. "The Philosopher's Stone? Fine. I'll work with you. But!" He ignored Mustang's loud protests and held up a finger, "not without a price. Equivalent Exchange. What do you get out of this?"

Raising an eyebrow, Lelouch said, "I believe I-"

"Not that bull." cut in Edward, "There's no way we can believe that."

Slightly stunned, Lelouch stared. Then he scoffed and shook his head. This boy knew how to play the game, maybe he had /some/ intelligence. It almost reminded Lelouch of himself when he was younger. "Fine, you teach me some of this 'alchemy,' I hear you're a gifted scientist."

Edward smiled, teeth flashing. "Flattery will get you nowhere."

Annoyed, Lelouch retorted over Mustang's spluttering, "Do we have a deal, or not?"

Al stepped in. "We need to know who or what you are, first. If we can trust you."

Lelouch started to contemplate, then cut himself off. He wasn't in Britannia anymore. There was nothing to hide. He let out a breath, trying to shed the overly paranoid demeanor and masks that he had picked up out of necessity. This was a second chance. A whole new world. "As I said, my name is Lelouch Lamperouge. I am from Xing," he said, pulling names from memory, "from the countryside. I don't know how I arrived here, maybe something to do with this alchemy of yours. Ever since I woke up, I've had a hell of a time figuring out what has happened. I have the ability to manipulate consciouses." Lelouch said frankly. Too bad if they didn't believe him.

"You've never heard of Ametris?" Roy asked dubiously. Lelouch shrugged. "You've never heard of Alchemy before?" he continued, "and you don't even look Xingeze. And 'manipulating consciouses?' Lelouch gazed at him levelly. "Why Rivalz Cardemonde?" Mustang finished a little helplessly.

Lelouch said, "You don't look very Ametrision, Colonel."

"Whatever," said Ed, "We'll find out sooner or later. Time to be allies." And he gave Lelouch that lean, hard smirk. "I have a few questions about that Philosopher's Stone you mentioned, if you don't mind."

Lelouch felt himself pale. "In fact, I-"

"Excellent!" crowed Edward, already out the door. Lelouch felt a hand around his arm, and looked up into the apologetic eyes of Alphonse Elric.

"When he gets like this, there's no stopping him," he explained, "Just go with it."

There was a feeling of imminent doom, that Lelouch frequently experienced when hiding from his many stalkers at Ashford. If he had cared, Lelouch would have thought it remarkable that such a feeling could relate to his current, improved position.

He steeled himself for another long night of more questioning.

* * *

"You dare fail? You worthless-!"

Envy and Lust cowered before Father, chastised and miserable.

"Father, I apologize, and Gluttony-"

"SILENCE!" He truly was a fearsome sight, rage in his eyes and his whole frame trembling with fury. He had felt it, of course, but hadn't wanted to believe it, not when they were so _close_! He breathed heavily, forcing himself to calm. It was unsightly.

"I will rebirth Gluttony." He said, more calmly. "But you will remove this obstruction, or at least find if he is our final sacrifice. Find everything about him! What is he? That is your new assignment. Wrath will take care of the rest. Do not fail me again, my children."

"Yes, Father." They said in unison.

* * *

In the morning, Lelouch had received about two hours of sleep. That was not the problem, as he was used to it, but instead the decidedly unenticing smell wafting up from the kitchen. He stalked down the stairs and straight into the kitchen, spying Mustang messing about on one of the stoves.

"What." He said. "Are. You. Doing."

Mustang glared at the disheveled boy, trying to ignore his strange beauty, and retorted, "Breakfast."

Lelouch _stared_.

"No." he said.

Before Mustang knew what was happening, Lelouch had expertly spun him away from the stove, shoved him out the kitchen door and locked it behind him.

"Hey!" He yelled indignantly, pounding on the door with his spatula. "What are-"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, MUSTANG!" He heard from upstairs. Fullmetal had to spend the night over. Mustang scowled, and giving one last half-hearted bang on the door, limped away to the living room, where he threw himself across the lavish couch, where he contemplated the unfairness of life.

Ten minutes later, this was forgotten as ridiculously delicious smells wafted across the house, apparently waking Edward from slumber as he groggily stumbled down the stairs, Al hovering protectively behind him. "Food." He mumbled. His hair was in a disarrayed mess, his metal arm glinting brightly, exposed by his open black shirt.

"Lelouch." Responded Mustang, his stomach growling. What was that boy _doing_ in there?

* * *

Mustang had a nice kitchen. Well stocked, almost new, filled with every possible thing one could ever wish for. Well, with a few exceptions from the 21st century. But much to his delight, coffee-makers apparently were in existence.

Lelouch had the whole place buzzing within minutes, eggs on pan, coffee steaming and sausages gleaming. There weren't enough ingredients for anything too fancy, but there was bourbon so he put it on the sausages for flavor, and deftly sprinkled herbs into the omelets. At least he could have a decent meal in this strange place. He grimaced. It wasn't as if there was a Nunnally to cook for, anymore.

Maybe, he could find a way back? He immediately discarded the idea. There was no way. It would defeat the entire purpose of Zero Requiem. He had made so many arrangements with his geass and skill before he 'died' to ensure Nunnally had the smoothest running of the new world order as possible. It all hinged on his death, and he would be damned if he went back there to ruin it all.

Preparations had been made for afterwards, but he would not be there to carry them through. It was fortunate then, that he could trust Suzaku, even as his knight was killing him.

But for now, the eggs were almost burning.

* * *

"Holy shit." said Edward blankly, as he stared at the restaurant-quality selection arrayed in front of him. He had never tasted anything more delicious in his life. He gave a guilty glance to Al, then mentally added it to The List.

Mustang was too busy chewing to answer.

On one end of the table, Lelouch smirked as he swallowed a sausage. He still had it, at least.

"So," said Mustang, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin. "My office is destroyed, which means no work today." He allowed himself a brief grin, and at Fullmetal's raised eyebrow, "Second Lieutenant Hawkeye is fine, she just needs a bit of recovery. My leg is merely bruised. I already called the rest, Feury, Havoc, Falman." Lelouch gave a slight jerk at the names, recognizing the ones who had shot him.

No one noticed. "and-" A pause, a wince, "Miss Rockbell called." Edward's head shot up as he practically jumped out of his chair.

"What, Winry? Why?" at the same time as Al's "Did she find out Ed broke his arm again?"

"It's not broken!" Edward snapped. "It's just a little- cracked, is all! It still works perfectly fine!" He swung the arm back and forth, abruptly stopping when a light skritch was heard. "See!"

Lelouch stared at it curiously. Prosthetics weren't in his field of interest, but experience with Jeramiah and Knightmares had taught him much about the maintenance of machines. He didn't say anything.

"Tell that to Miss Rockbell." Responded Mustang, and finished off his meal. He made a small sound of disappointment and sat back.

"I brought a plate to Second Lieutenant Hawkeye," piped up Alphonse, knowing what Mustang was about to say. Mustang gave a short grunt of acknowledgement, and turned to Edward, who seemed to be frozen like a rabbit in headlights.

"Find anything in your questioning last night?" Asked Mustang.

Lelouch scowled and studiously ignored them. Edward coughed and sighed. "Who knows." He scowled. "It's all very mysterious. But one thing is definite; there will be another attack on Ledouche here."

The insult took another second to sink in, and by the time Lelouch had the presence of mind to glare icily, Edward had continued.

"We can't let the government know he exists, correct? So somehow he'll have to keep moving. Mustang, do you have any connections?"

Mustang mulled over it for a moment, then a slow smirk started to spread over his face. Edward's eyes widened in alarm. "Why, yes. In fact, I have just the /perfect/ connection, that would solve all our problems."

Still leaning back warily, Edward reluctantly asked, "And that is..."

"The Elric Brothers, of course! Always on the move, strong alchemists in their own right, who better?"

Edward's head met table.

* * *

As Winry stepped off the bus, she was smiling sunnily, blue eyes sparkling as she took in Central Station. The trains were back up, the day was beautiful, and she could see Edward again. Her smile abruptly was overtaken by a thunderous scowl at the thought of her beautiful, /perfect/, automail being ruined by that idiot once again. /No one/ else managed to break such sturdy and well-made, if she could say so herself, Automail and it was frightening trying to imagine the trouble he went through to manage such a feat. Her scowl somehow deepened.

A few whacks of her wrench should teach him a lesson.

She saw that... Colonel? Colonel...Mustang standing to the side, in the shade, who gave a small wave towards her. She trotted towards him, bag clanging by her side. "Hello, Colonel." She said politely. "Where's Edward?"

"Hello, Miss Rockbell," Mustang smiled, all graciousness and good-looks, "Please, call me Roy. I'm afraid Edward is being briefed on his latest mission. I'll bring you straight to him." Edward had locked himself in one of the bedrooms when Mustang had tried to drag him along with him. ("I don't want to be beat up this early!") came the muffled entreaty.

"Okay," said Winry, a little miffed that Edward hadn't come to see her, "I'll fix that idiot's automail right up." Mustang gave her a dazzling smile, and offered his arm into the car. There was always time to charm a beautiful lady.

* * *

Lelouch had been handcuffed to a bed. The indignity of the deed was only topped by the ease of which it had happened. His lack of strength always had been a flaw, but in this world, with no troops and in the military, it was _crippling_.

Holding back curses in the suit of armor's presence, he sat as dignified as he could. You'd think that after being proclaimed an 'ally,' they would stop with this nonsense.

He gave another weak pull, casting his gaze around for something, anything. These handcuffs were antiques, relics of another age, at least in /his/ world. He had memorized on how to pick them ages ago. Now where were some wires?

Seeing nothing that he could palm before Alphonse would stop him, though, he scowled darkly and settled back into the bed. It wasn't as if he would be there for long, only enough until this Winry came and left. Now was a good time as ever to catch up on some sleep, in lieu of class naps. Ignoring Alphonse, he remained sitting, nestling his chin into palm as he easily fell into sleep.

* * *

_"Monster, Demon!" They shouted at him, as he stumbled away._

_"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, forgive me!" He cried as he ran, white robes billowing around him._

_Dead bodies piled below him, each death was his fault, his fault, his fault. "No!" He said, and covered his eyes, only to find that it was dripping with dark liquid- blood._

_He gagged, backpedaling. He caught sight of something pink; his heart dropped and he whirled._

_"Euphemia!" He shouted, and lunged to her side, taking in the blood spreading from he center of her beautiful dress. "Euphie," he whispered, caressing the side of her face. He left a trail of blood. "Who did this to you?"_

_Euphemia's eyes opened, as she grinned cheerfully, maniacally, back at him. "Oh, big brother, you promised, you promised! You did, you did, you did!"_

_Lelouch's eyes widened as he fell back. "W-what are you saying, Euphie?" Bleeding feely, Euphemia rose unsteadily to her knees. As Lelouch reached foward to help her, her eyes flashed and she shoved him away._

_"LIAR! LIAR! YOU-"_

_Suddenly his world was awash in orange clouds, as if reflecting a sunset._

_The World of C._

_.:Lelouch:. Said C.C. Lelouch turned, and saw her. She was as beautiful and icy as ever, green hair waving in an invisible breeze, even in a dress for peasants on her. .:So it's true, then:._

_Lelouch tilted his head, examining his surroundings curiously. .:This is-:._

_C.C smiled, the expression changing her whole countenance. .:Perhaps. One day, we may see each other again, but it seems... there remains something to be done.:._

_.:Wait, something? C.C!:. C.C had started to fade, walking away._

_She stopped to glance over her shoulder. .:Keep your heart, Lelouch. You will know, in time. I'll be waiting:. And she was gone._

"Heart?" Lelouch breathed, as he opened his eyes.

Alphonse was gone.

* * *

AN: Do you know what's on my mind? NaNoWriMo is on my mind. Expect a month of vaca, at least. Long chapter for long train of guilt. Also importantly, Mustang is bi the way, and so there. Fluff and /everything./ Hey, my writing is slowly improving! This is an interesting effect.

Just in case some troll didn't catch it, they trust Lelouch not to murder/poison/harm them in their sleep because he went through all the trouble to save them, and kill the Homunculi, and generally could have done it earlier and easier if he wanted. The length of this chapter disguises almost nothing happened. Pshaw, oh well.

Reviewing gets me off my lazy ass, just so you know. Seriously. Nitpicking and opinions are very, extremely, beneficial to us both. It's a beautiful mutual symbiotic thing that will take place if you click that enticing small rectangle three centimeters below.

Go on. You know you can do it. There' s nothing I love to hear more than opinions :3


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

There was a mild crisis at two o' clock in the afternoon and twenty stairs downwards.

Mustang's house was in absolute _ruin_.

"FUUULLMETAL!"

* * *

Lelouch opened his eyes. The sunlight was peacefully streaming in, and Alphonse was gone.

Lelouch rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, ignored his drowsiness and glanced around. The room seemed empty, and there was a distant pounding from downstairs. But more importantly, the room was clear! He was starting to think these dreams were something more than deranged hallucinations. After all, even C.C had not understood the full extent of her powers and the mysterious connection with the World of C. It was... extremely irritating.

His arm was pinned annoyingly in an awkward position, still handcuffed to the post and the metal biting into his flesh. Gritting his teeth, he untwisted it.

He'd had quite enough of this.

Lelouch slid over the bed, swiping a pair of hat pins from the dresser. Disregarding the bright flowers weighing down one end, he held it in his mouth with careful precision, nudging this way and that until-

ka-chik-click.

He spat the pin out and tossed the other back on the dresser. He jiggled the lock impatiently, squinting at the small hole. It really wasn't too refined. Something seemed to settle, and Lelouch carefully wormed the handcuff off his wrist. Really, if they were going to restrain him, they should have at least done it properly, he got it off with just his teeth.

He couldn't help but smirk as he brushed himself off and stood up. The banging during his short escaping stint had been getting steadily more alarming, but Lelouch hadn't yet heard any guns. It probably was something the Elric brother had done, judging by Alphonse's absence.

There was a high-pitched scream from downstairs.

_Probably_.

"_Edward Elric_ if you-" the girl's voice faded into incomprehensible gibberish, but the very fact that Lelouch could hear it through the floor, he relaxed immediately. No crazy... homunculus then. Just Elric's girlfriend. Strange, Elric didn't seem the type to have a woman...

Lelouch cautiously opened the door.

* * *

Ed was mildly stunned.

Actually, he was more like severely concussed, but the breadth of Winry's rage had caught him off guard. All he had done was break it a little! He did it all the time!

Mustang had disappeared, Ed noticed passingly with much annoyance. Stupid damn bastard, how convenient for him. If someone else was here, maybe Winry would-

"_Edward Elric_ if you think you can hide from me, you'd better-"

"Winry, stop, stop!" Al was hovering worriedly to one side, trying and failing to keep up with the amazing agility the two were demonstrating.

"You said you were in _no danger_! You jerk-"

"What the hell are you even talking about!" There was another crackle of blue energy, and Edward was seriously considering a full on frontal attack to restrain the babbling woman.

"Don't you yell at me, Ed! You know full well-"

She froze, wrench held high in one hand. Edward froze because Winry froze, and Alphonse seized the opportunity and rushed forward, pulling the wrench from Winry's hand. It didn't budge. He realized Winry still hadn't moved. Slowly, he turned to see what had made her stop so entirely.

"Oh," he let out a sigh of relief. "It's just Lelouch."

Then- "Lelouch! How did you-"

"What the hell is he-" Edward started at the same time. Lelouch's brow lanced downwards, and he glanced over and around them.

Alphonse was suddenly aware of how the ground floor must have looked like in the aftermath. He pulled Winry's arm down, embarrassed.

Of course, Edward didn't care at all and Winry was still gaping.

"U-u-um," Alphonse stuttered desperately to break the crystalline silence, "Winry, meet Lelouch Lamperouge."

"A pleasure, I'm sure." said Lelouch archly.

* * *

Mustang was in a spot of trouble.

"I apologize for my absence." He grit through his teeth, and struggled to relax, affecting a tired, stuffed tone, "But I assure you doing work while I am injured is- yes, an alchemy accident, no, I have not used my leave of absence-"

He listened to the man droning on about regulations on the other end. "Thank you." He slammed the receiver into the wall.

Another crash sounded from the living room. "Elric," he bit out. and wearily made his way towards the noise.

* * *

"You need to leave." he said flatly to Edward, who was scowling and rubbing his head.

Sharp eyes flashed towards him. Edward smirked slyly. "Is this about your house, Bastard? Because-"

"No," said Mustang tersely, "one, if the military figures out you're here with that boy, You do not know the hell I will have to go through to clear myself. Two, if the homunculus find us in such an obvious place, I will personally murder you since my staff is not here to do it for me, and three, yes, you have adequately destroyed my home. Those paintings were priceless, you know." His face flashed with irritation.

"Duh." Edward rolled his eyes. "Don't underestimate me. I've already got tickets to Dublith." He waved the tickets around his head. "The homunculus will be searching... Central and New Optain, so we can gain time by hiding." He smirked. "And if you say pretty please, Bastard, I can fix your dumb paintings, too."

Mustang was starting to regret assigning the Elrics the boy, who was standing silently and expressionlessly near the stairs. 'In Hiding' and 'Elric' in the same sentence was an oxymoron.

"..._stay low_." he said.

"Don't worry, sir, we will," said Al, covering Ed's mouth politely.

"You're going south?" Winry suddenly said, looking a little too interested. Ed glanced at her warily.

"Yeah. To Dublith... what about it?" Winry's expression was brightening visibly, and it was becoming a bit frightening.

"Can I _go_?" She said, eyes asparkle.

"No." said Ed. Even as her smile turned demonic and she stepped closer, Ed glared up at her.

"Just why not, Ed?"

He backed up a few steps, just a few, just in case. "We're going South for a _reason_-"

"I've always wanted to go to Rush Valley, just once! This is an amazing chance, I was going to head back, but I got to tell Granny about the change of plans!" She was smiling so hard and she actually danced a little as she started to turn around.

"Go by yourself!" Ed snapped.

"Just who paid for the trip, bought the tickets, Ed?" She shot back sweetly.

"Are you threatening- hey! Come back here!"

Alphonse stared after her. "She's pretty happy."

Edward was visibly fuming. "What is even wrong with girls these- WHAT ARE YOU DOING."

Lelouch glanced up from the arm he had been inspecting. "The girl made these?"

"What's it to you?" Ed snatched his newly repaired arm back, suppressing his urge to cradle it. He glared for good measure.

"How did you get out of the.. erm, handcuffs?" Said Al from behind him.

"If that was an attempt at restraining me, you people are more incompetent than I could have believed. And it served absolutely no purpose otherwise." said Lelouch off-handed. "This kind of prosthetic is common?"

Edward's eyes sharpened. "What, they don't have automail in Xing?"

"Not that I've seen," said Lelouch, not missing a beat.

Ed scowled. The boy was so open, it was astounding. _He would have made an excellent revolutionary figurehead,_ Lelouch mused before he could stop himself. But it was true. With his striking gold eyes and spark, and his strangely endearing personality and his drive, well, quite a force if properly directed.

Elric in a Knightmare. Lelouch winced. It didn't help that he kept drawing parallels to Kouzuki.

"Don't touch me," Edward snapped at him, even though Lelouch had done nothing of the sort. He trailed out the door, presumably after his girlfriend.

"I'm sorry about my brother," Al said. Lelouch's gaze snapped to him. After a moment, to Al's eternal shock, he smiled. It was an unguarded, gentle expression, that felt private even as he gazed beyond Al.

"You must do that often," said the boy, then turned to face an irritated Mustang. The expression was gone, and he was business-minded as usual. Al was still a little frozen. Disproportionally, he felt. It wasn't as if he had knew the guy.

Right?

* * *

C.C is uncomfortably aware that codes don't die, but Charles' definitely, irrevocably, did. If Geass were wishes, then wishes were energy, and Codes were the ultimate crystallization of Geass, then perhaps? She paused. No, that didn't really explain anything, and she did not know how Lelouch had earned a Code.

None of the assumed guidelines were brooked, and if he was alive, where the hell was he?

Dreams were surprising enough, when she first met him. In all her years of wandering, never had she met someone who threw her whole self in such different paths without even trying.

C.C groaned. Geass or not, this power couldn't bring back the dead, and she had felt him die. Lelouch was done, and there was turmoil, but that was a kind of peace as well. Nunnally was-

Well, Nunnally was a _surprise_, to say in the least. Just as thorough as her brother, though in a different plane. C.C chuckled. She was still a witch who talked to ghosts, after all. But this time...

She still had a pistol, from that time with the French diplomat. She had a clean, official-looking suit crumpled somewhere from the incident in Western Britt- in Russia. A licence in her drawer, a phone on the bed. Intelligence, secrets. All the tools she could ever need.

C.C was done with sitting around and watching the world burn. Damn Lelouch for making her interested. She threw her head back, and smirked at the ceiling.

"So maybe this was your plan all along... Marianne?"

After all. Let dead dogs lie.

* * *

Lelouch was glad to have the girl riding with them. He learned more circumstantial information in five minutes than he did in five days.

"What kind of teacher is she?" Winry wondered aloud, trying to imagine Ed and Al sitting in a classroom.

Edward paled dramatically, and Al did too, despite being in armor. Lelouch wondered what kind of disfigurement could drive the gentle boy to cover himself in such an unnatural manner. The way he moved, the way he exaggerated his inflection, it's as if he'd been wearing that suit for years. His gaze flicked to Ed. Perhaps the same incident with his arm and leg?

"We are going to die." said the Fullmetal Alchemist with iron certainty.

Al started quivering. Lelouch's mind unhelpfully conjured a sparkling Lt. Armstrong. That bad?

"Did this teacher teach you alchemy?" He guessed in a flash of insight.

Ed turned towards him, eyes burning. "If I tell you that, will you tell me what the homunculi are trying to do?"

"They're trying to obtain unimaginable power to extend their life."

"_Besides_ that."

Lelouch knew how to deal with this boy now. "What's your teacher's name?"

He paled all over again. "I-Izumi Curtis."

"They had something to do with a riot." Lelouch paused, because he couldn't decide if Liore is a place or a person. "Liore." It was just a word he can barely remember from Envy's mind. His lack of knowledge was infuriating.

Edward's eyes widened. "WHAT!"

Not really a nominal reaction. Lelouch quickly tried to piece scattered information together in his brain. "What, did you think you could make a difference?" A very general response that could have meant anything.

Before he knew what was happening, his collar was yanked up and Edward was nose to nose with him, seething and terrified. "What happened in Liore? What riots?"

Lelouch's lip curled reflexively. He didn't know either. "None of your business." He immediately regretted it because that was such a stupid cover and-

"I fixed it! I threw that bastard out on his ass and the military said they would clear the rest up! _What do you mean, riots_?"

"Edward!" Winry's wrench came out of nowhere, throwing him backwards. She turned to him, her face apologetic.

"It's fine," cut Lelouch before she could start. Edward scowled at even that interaction. The girl hadn't spoken to him once since leaving the house, and Lelouch guessed that Edward had warned her away. It wasn't exactly as if he was wrong.

Winry frowned at him, and moved back. "Alright, then." She cast a warning look to Ed. _Behave properly._ Interesting. Wait, what? Why was he interested in their little couple's fight?

Al was still and silent. So riots in Liore, hm? He was going to get a newspaper as soon as he could. Lelouch settled back for now, though. It didn't look like he would be hearing anything about this teacher Izumi Curtis or alchemy until after Rush Valley.

Ed's directionless glare out the window suddenly sharpened, and he stood up and abruptly wrenched open the cabin door.

"Brother? What is it?"

Ed scanned up and down the hallway. "...Nothing." He sat down with a small annoyed huff.

None of them noticed in the car ever noticed the dark skinned man in the compartment next door.

* * *

AN: So~~ Surprise! The theme for this chapter is: poking dangerous looking lumps of plot into tall pot. Liberal sprinkles of idiocy with some ambition.

Update schedule? What's that?

Oh yeah, some people noticed I skipped stuff about how Lelouch even escaped Lust and Gluttony, do not fear, ALL WILL BE REVEALED. EVENTUALLY. Next chapter easy, well not a year long wait I assure you.

Random: Ed and Lelouch arguing is something that must be done all the time.

Review please! Criticism preferred, opinions noted.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

* * *

Recap: Lelouch lands in Amestris, gets picked up by the Elric brothers under Mustang's secret orders (who knew because all the weird glowy crap that was going on a while before he landed) then was imprisoned back on base for being a possible hostile homunculus. The actual homunculi attack to retrieve the anomaly threatening their plan but were unexpectedly repelled by both prisoner and imprisoners. Lelouch is then released from custody. Elrics, Winry and Lelouch are sent off from Eastern HQ to 'lay low' for a while, from both Mustang's mysterious problem and the more overt problem of imminent death via homunculi. Chap 7 ended with their possible upcoming doom at the tender mercies of Izumi Curtis! And this weird place called Rush Valley that Winry keeps goin on about?

…Not much has really happened yet. This is all just formalities for the main story to take the stage, which hopefully kicks off in this chapter.

* * *

The train pulled into the station with a comforting clack of wheels and steam.

"Rush Valley," announced Ed, already fishing out his trunk. He made a face. "Let's get this over with." Winry rolled her eyes, stretching into a groan.

"How do you ride these all the time?" She straightened. "You'll see. Rush Valley is famous for its automail, food, mechanics and diversity. It's an amazing place!"

Lelouch tugged at his jacket uncomfortably. Mustang was actually his height if not his exact size, but he had enough tight clothes to fit Lelouch to a T. It was actually vaguely unnerving seeing so much casual authority from a military officer, but in the end the clothes were all packed into a small, nondescript bag sitting on the seat beside him. How strange to have all his worldly possessions stuffed in a box. Starting over once more.

After pulling in through the arid edges of the plains, they settled to a stop in a dusty, lively town. In the station outside was familiar chaos- settling in the anonymity afforded by a large crowd proved invaluable the three months he had disappeared from the public. There were so many people in Rush Valley, and half of them seemed to be entering by train station.

During the train ride he had compiled a list of the things he knew and the things he had to do, and the previous was very short while the latter was becoming depressingly long. He was sure if he strayed from the alchemists that those homunculus things would come to get him, which didn't sound appealing in the least. Elric was his only connection to whatever was going on. He was inexplicably high up in the military for a self-gratified brat. That sort of reminded Lelouch of Suzaku.

"Waaarfgh," said Ed, already half buried in the crowd. "Out of the way!" He shoved aside a few workers, Al trailing behind him and fishing him upwards when necessary. Lelouch frowned, craned his neck to look for Elric, and knocked straight into another passerby, who fell to the ground with a clattering noise.

"Oh, excuse-," began Lelouch automatically, looking down.

"No problem," said the man in a dismissive tone, taking his hand and pulling himself to his feet. His wrists were wire thin and surprisingly strong, and he wore black sunglasses over his eyes, as if he was blind. "Tourist, huh? Welcome to the boom town of the broken down." He smiled wryly as if to some hidden joke.

"Thanks…," said Lelouch, "er, is that all yours?" The man tilted his head, and turned around, allowing Lelouch to see how the huge pack on his back had been torn open, allowing a pack of swords to clatter all over the floor in the impact.

"Shiit," the man exclaimed, dropping to his knees. People were starting to give them both a small berth now, which was a little alarming but more helpful. The man threw off his backpack at Lelouch. "Hold this." He quickly scrambled around, gathering the swords in his arms, muttering to himself under his breath the whole while.

Lelouch held one end of the bag gingerly. It folded open, revealing the huge hole on the inside.

"Aw great," said the man, catching sight. I'll never hold all these on my-" the man head snapped in his direction. "Say, what did you say your name was?"

Lelouch deliberated. "I didn't. I'm Lelouch."

There was no reaction to this. "Interesting name. And I'm Davis, pleasure to meet ya." With little warning, he stood and dumped the heavy pile of metal in Lelouch's arms. "Now you can ditch that bag and carry this instead." He smirked. "Thanks for all your help, Lelouch."

"What! No. Take these back!" Lelouch said in a half-yelp, trying not to drop the sudden weight.

Davis patted his shoulder condescendingly. "My store is just a little ways away, it's not as if it'll be that far. You break it, you buy it." He nudged another sword by his feet, then kicked it up in a perfect arc to land in the small pile in his own arms. "I'm not just going to leave all my amazing hard work here."

"No, really, I need to-" he looked up, but Ed and Al were nowhere to be found. Unbelievable. Some disciplined guards they were. Well, the brothers would be just in the city. It wasn't as if they would leave without him. "Urgh. Fine. Whatever."

"That's the spirit," said the strange man with the glasses, then got distracted by a child who had picked up a weapon. "Hey twerp! Put that down, all slowly like."

Recognition almost blew Lelouch over in shock.

The boy looked up, eyes wide, and slowly backed into the crowd, only to Davis practically flicker forward to pluck the sword out of his hands. "Kids these days," he scoffed, spinning the sword in one hand before popping back up into his pile. He looked back at Lelouch. "Huh. Something interesting about my skills? They are pretty good, I know." His voice was curious under the saccharine tone.

Lelouch was trying not to drop his swords in his sudden shock. "You, kid, what's your name," he barked out, his voice sharp and angry.

The child trembled a little, almost like a vibration running through his frame. He looked up under his cap and answered in a high, soft voice. "M-my name is R-rolo, sir."

"What?!" The boy flinched, and fled into the crowd.

* * *

"Where is he?" Edward said irritably, glancing around from his perch on a station bench. "Did the bastard make a run for it?" He snorted and hopped off the bench. "Well, good riddance."

"This is a military mission, Ed!" said Al, "you can't just leave him here."

"Uh, yes I can," said Ed, brow furrowed. He patted down his ruffled coat. "But I won't. Not because of Mustang, shut up, It's just that bastard still owes me." Al didn't know if he meant Lelouch or the Colonel.

"He's a little weird, but it didn't seem like he was about to run off," said Winry. She nudged Ed with her shoulder. "He'll be fine."

Ed sputtered. "I wasn't worried about him! Don't get the wrong idea here. Seriously, he was a prisoner! What the hell?"

"Yeah, so you told me, but what exactly did he do! He's been nothing but polite."

"Look Winry, Lelouch or whatever his name is weird, in a bad way, and he can mess with your mind, and he's… well, he's…" Ed was about to say something like _immortal_ or possibly something like _not really human_ so Al butted in.

"And he hurt Major Armstrong, one of our friends. I don't think he meant to, but he's dangerous, Winry. We still don't know what he wants."

Winry sighed. "I believe you. But come on, let's go into town. I'm sure he can meet us up there."

With one last sweep of his golden eyes, Ed turned and left the station. The entrance of the town was framed by huge wrought iron arch, twisting and welded in ways that didn't look like alchemy. Ed was reluctantly impressed.

"This place is amazing!" Winry gasped, stars in her eyes. "I can't believe they have all these advanced mechanics in one place!" She rushed to a shop window. "Would you look at that, fresh from the forge. That shine! Is that chrome? They can do that now without corrupting the-?" Something else caught her eye. "That wrench!" A sound remarkably like a pleased baby seal escaped from her direction.

Ed backed away unsubtly. "She's not going to make me buy anything, is she?" he whispered to Al. He had quite a stipend as a state alchemist, but the cutting edge technology in this place was up in the thousands.

"She's so happy, brother, you should let her pick whatever she wants."

"Soft! Al, you're too soft!"

"Don't be a jerk, Ed," said Al. Ed whapped him with his automail arm. A few nearby men with bandanas wrapped around their head suddenly turned at the resulting sound. Ed edged away from them, back towards Winry. The architecture here was interesting, but the people creeped him out a bit. Mechanics. Almost redundant in an alchemical world. Not that he'd /ever/ say that to Winry.

"Ed," said Winry, suddenly in his face. Her eyes were brilliant and determined.

"Y-yeah?"

Her grip landed on his shoulders. "Strip." He then noticed a small gaggle of engineers- if their glasses and upraised screwdrivers were any indication- behind her. They all seemed to glint evilly in unison.

"What!?"

"Take off. Your shirt." Ed suddenly had chills. He shot a desperate glance at Al, who simply stared back at him. Ed was sure he was laughing. Ed was indeed correct.

"N-no! I refuse!" Winry's eyes narrowed, but Ed could tell she was a bit injured. "I mean, it's just a shirt, right?" He shot a look at the engineers, who still looked interested despite themselves. He wouldn't want them to not realize Winry's work.

Ed stripped.

There was a lot of noise. A small crowd gathered. Ed was stripped more.

His watch was stolen. His very expensive, very meaningful, very important State Alchemist watch.*

"I can't believe that little- rrrrrrrrgh- THIEF!" raged Ed, huffing in a way he hadn't for a long while. He wasn't used to the feeling of being completely physically inadequate to someone. Well, besides his teacher. He had gone toe to toe with the Flame Alchemist! Paninya took the courtesy to glance back and wiggle her butt at him obnoxiously. "How old is she, three?!" He clapped his hands and slammed it into the ground, great monoliths of stone and roof tiling rising around the girl and crashing down. Paninya dodged them with insulting grace, laughing all the while. She was either insane, insanely skilled, hiding a dark secret, or not at all that bright.

An idea sparked in Edward's head. "Al," he grabbed Al by the back of his neck. "Come here for a second." Paninya danced mockingly in his peripheral vision. Ed grit his teeth and ignored her. Curse his weakness of reacting to every single little damn thing. Al exuded nervousness, and Ed imagined what his face must look like and tried to relax into a friendly if neutral smile. His expression morphed into a grimacing rictus.

Winry leaned in their circle with a tiny grin. "You look like you're gonna blow." She wasn't taking this at all seriously.

"That girl," Ed ground out, "how smart do you think she is?"

"Really smart," said Winry immediately. "She's born on the streets. A career pickpocket? That's some amazing skill to have the people around /here/ to respect you for it. Look at her go!" She smiled at Paninya's antics.

"You are not here to make friends with the asshole thief. I am going to beat the shit out of her, ok?" said Ed, waving his arms around, "/And,/ there is a huge difference between tactics and strategy."

Al's eyes lit up with understanding. "Rooftops, that could be easy-"

"-I'm thinking a low corner store, more material to-"

"-I'll set up a few just in case but how about…" Al stood up, using his superior height to scope out as much as the city as he could. It was in an interesting city, smushed against the desert and the mountains. The layout rose and fell far into the distance, a hundred two story buildings and alleyways. "There!" said Al, vaguely gesturing into the distance.

Ed nodded hastily. "I can't lose her, hurry up. Any-"

"This city is her playground, Ed," said Winry, "I don't really understand, but just be careful, alright?"

Ed waved her off impatiently. "Backup?"

Al made a familiar noosing motion and shrugged. "Tactics. In a relay." Without further ado Ed spun away from them and knelt, the ground suddenly rising up like a crackling blue torpedo, throwing him in a horizontal arc. It disintegrated as soon as he lost contact with it, making a small rain of molecularized concrete and dirt.

"Mind letting me in on the plan?" said Winry, shading her eyes to watch them hop off into the distance. Alchemy really was impressive, she mulled, but not as impressive as Paninya.

"Remember when we were kids?" said Al, starting to walk casually down the street.

"Yes, of course," said Winry, slightly wary of another unexpected Al-related breakdown.

"B stands for Backup, that's the rule," said Al with what sounded like a grin in his voice. Winry suddenly remembered years of play, forts and 'no girls allowed!' written on the side of trees and graveyards. Sets of traps and secret codes and baits and lures set in a neat line of relay tag that couldn't fool Winry anymore. But anyone else…

"Oh. Oh, that's mean. Kind of humiliating?"

"No, that's only plan B! I'm really the one setting the trap this time." He stopped in front of a shop. "This should do it." He grabbed a stick, tracing the ground outside in a perfect circle.

"There's a difference between tactics and strategy, remember? We're going to go with strategy." He started absently carving symbols into the edges of the array. "Don't worry, I'll play nice. It's not as if she'll be hurt."

Winry tilted her head. "You boys haven't changed a bit, hm." She let out an easy smile, and looped her arm through Al's metal one as he walked to the next store over.

"Y-you've changed a lot," said Al. Winry giggled helplessly at his obvious discomfort.

"Not really! Relax, I'm glad I came here with you two! You haven't come home much. I guess it's just easier to run after you two still after all the time..." Automail prosthetics were famous for their durability, dexterity, and resistance to breakage. She had always gone above and beyond with the work on Ed's arm, the most cutting –edge enhancements she could develop and support. She knew that arm inside out and eyes closed, and she had every part on hand, all the time. His arm could probably punch through a concrete wall. So it was alarming, how he always managed to completely splinter it into cracked fragments of her crafted labor. She hoped somehow, if she told him enough, that he would consider the fragility of his invincible arm and not be so reckless. Idiot.

Ed didn't keep them waiting for long. They could hear the sounds of Ed and Paninya's apparently epic fight rage hither and there, slowly working in their direction. There was a brief pause, then the roof suddenly exploded in a crackle of alchemy.

"I GOT YOU NOW!" they heard Ed yell, familiar blue lightning crackling up the sides of the building like a flag. There were a series of grunts and the sound of rocks falling and giddy laughter, then the door burst open in a cloud of dust.

"I've been waiting for you," said Al with a hint of a grin in his voice, standing solidly in Paninya's way. She hesitated long enough that Al could trigger the array, bars rising around her like an inescapable cage. Wow. Alchemy sure was amazing. Is this seriously what they did all day?

Then a blade flicked out of Paninya's leg, which was interesting. It was very interesting. In fact, Winry would say it was even _fascinating_, the way the perfectly balanced mechanism shot out from below her knee with two supports working as a hinge, without interfering with the design of the nerves and movement. _Who made that_? Then Paninya raised her other leg and there was a _missile launcher_ and whoever created that weight distribution system was a _genius_ and- an epiphany struck Winry. The shape could have entirely nothing to do with function. She had never seen anything like it. This was nothing like those thugs who only used automail as a 'weapon' liked to use- no rickety slide ons or inelegant machine guns welded to the design, the weapons systems here even seemed like an afterthought at the most. Both her legs were automail up to her thighs and she was already _bouncing up the side of a wall_- Winry lunged forward and grabbed her wrist. "Like hell you're getting away," she growled. The girl looked intimidated. No, no, she must keep good relations with the pretty automail. "That automail's amazing!" she gushed on purpose, and went into an effortless term-filled rant that was entirely genuine. She kept it up until the girl looked almost stupefied with confusion and Ed no longer looked like he wanted continue his fight. Winry paused for affect, waited until everyone's attention was refocused on her, then finished off all conflict by saying, "You _must_ take me to their creator!" Winry paused. "No, wait." She turned to Ed. "Did we find Lelouch?"

* * *

It was a good shop, Lelouch decided. He sipped his coffee. The workers were efficient, the workplace was up to par, the transactions friendly and professional. He eyed the dangerous looking weapons on the wall. Apparently Davis and co. made good business.

The blond man saw off one last customer with a winning grin. Lelouch frowned. From what he had seen of the sarcastic man, he rarely genuinely smiled. What was with the switch?

"I'd like to keep the customers coming back instead of keeping to my ebullient personality." He said drily, sliding into the booth. Lelouch blinked. "It was written all over your face." Disturbed, Lelouch tried for his usual bored look.

Davis smirked slightly. "You think you're so tough, kid." It didn't really seem like an insult, though, he said it in the same flat voice he said everything else in. "I know a thing or two about masks."

Lelouch's eyebrows shot up. It was a strange topic to suddenly jump to, any way he looked at it. And he had, it was strangely difficult to figure out this man. He kept expecting flamboyant movement. …Perhaps he had been hanging around way too many nobles. Lelouch sighed a little and just enjoyed the actually decent coffee.

"Damn, you like coffee, kid." Lelouch grimaced.

"Oh, you know," said Lelouch, "Coffee makers in the military don't make the most savory drink." All barracks and Black Knights combined couldn't muster up a decent cuppa. The coffee machine in Mustang's kitchen had only punctuated the point. Wait what the hell did he just say out loud.

Davis' fingers stopped tapping the table. What was wrong with him? He never made slips like that! And since when did he want to have casual conversation with random bypassers, anyway? He surreptitiously stopped drinking the coffee. Maybe it was drugged. This automatic faith he was starting to have in people was disturbing as well. No, it wasn't faith, but…

"My uncle," blurted Lelouch as casually as possible, "he always dragged me around the military, wanted me to join. I didn't."

"Relax, kid, I'm not interested in any of your military stints. How old are you… about 18? 19?" His black sunglasses made it impossible to see his eyes and read his facial expression. That was still a strange way of phrasing it. "Nah," said Davis, "I've always been more of a sword guy." He gestured to his impressive wall of weapons. "You know, weapons like guns have no grace." He abruptly leaned forward. "And you should be eating more, kid, you look like you're starving."

Lelouch blinked, was that why he was feeding him? "I'm perfectly fine, thanks. And I'm hardly starving!"

Davis frowned as his waifish figure. "Right." As the last workers trickled out of the store, the backdoor jingled as a woman came in, groceries hanging on her arm. Davis entire body brightened, and he jumped up to take her bags. "This is my beautiful wife," said Davis, his lips quirking strangely as she leaned over to give his cheek a light peck. It was unbearably sweet, and made him feel weird emotions in his stomach so he sipped his coffee to block the view. Something was really off about him today, though he doubted the coffee was actually poisoned. If Davies was some kind of assassin, it made no sense for Davies to meet him in that manner back on the platform with so many variables. The way he acted seemed genuine, if guarded, and he was doing far too many unnecessary actions to realistically be planning harm against Lelouch. It was ridiculous to keep being suspicious. He was probably just having an off-day. Too much stress, he was being delusional. ….Like that inexplicable Rolo look-alike at the station. Probably because the look-alike had just turned tail and ran when Lelouch had stepped closer, it was just some random resemblance. And the same exact name. And ridiculously similar mannerisms and voice. "Her name is Riyal," Davis continued in the same slightly gooey voice, "Riyal, Lelouch." Lelouch's mouth tightened. He knew how he performed under stress, this was different. No, something was-

"Oh!" he heard the wife say in surprise. He looked up, his face clearing into a polite smile. His eyes widened, tracking up and down her face.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, miss Riyal." She was looking at him, eyes wide in charming surprise. She was beautiful in a classically Britannian way few seemed to be in this country, dark black-blue curls down to her mid back and light blue eyes. It was as she was the exact opposite of her tall, stoic, and blonde husband. She looked very young, at least not much older than him. Lelouch blinked slowly and reevaluated the other man's age. It made sense that he was younger than he looked, then his actions fell into context. He had to be around 21, 25 at the most. It was really hard to tell with those glasses covering half his face.

…For some reason, Lelouch couldn't stop looking at her. It was bad. Every time he looked away, his thoughts instantly pulled his gaze back to her, like gravity. She looked really… appealing. It was bizarre.

"Your wife is beautiful," he told Davis, and was rewarded with a smile.

"I know, kid."

Davis hefted the bags and made to take them into the kitchen, but Riyal grabbed his arm. "It's fine, I was planning on making some stew anyways. I suppose I have to make plus one?" She smiled prettily.

Davis melted. It was imperceptible, but kind of shocking. Lelouch was almost embarrassed watching them. She took the groceries and disappeared into the back. Davis sat back down. "So," said Lelouch, "her name is Riyal?" He paused. "How did you to meet?"

"It was kind of an interesting meeting," said Davis, a bit rueful, a bit starstruck, "but-" A ringing timer went from behind the counter. "But break time is over," Davis finished, rising silently to his feet. "I'm going out for some materials," he said, loud enough to be heard from the back, "I'll be back in about an hour!"

"Got it!" came Riyal's musical voice from the back, "Lelouch! Can I have some help with the cooking?" Davis smirked at the expression on Lelouch's face.

"Better get goin, kid. You shouldn't keep a lady waiting."

Lelouch absconded, and could practically feel Davis' laugh as he exited the back door. That was becoming strange, too. Since when was he so buddy buddy with a couple of strangers? He ducked into the kitchen, the beautiful woman already shuffling around putting cans into shelves.

…this was ridiculous. Not even Shirley or Kallen could hold his attention in such a way. Maybe. He pushed the feeling to the back of his mind, and tore his eyes away.

The wife smiled at him, settling plates on the counter. "Your name is Lelouch, right? A beautiful name. Sounds French!" The way she said Lelouch like she was stumbling over the syllables probably meant she was foreign. Or not. It wasn't even technically called English here, who knew what else had changed.

"That's right," he said, smiling back, "it's a strange name, I know."

She giggled like he had said something funny. "So where are you from, Lelouch?" She turned to the carrots.

"Oh, Xing," Lelouch said airily, "pretty far from here."

"Right across the desert. You know, the caravans from there are lovely. I always want to go." she said agreeably. She reached left for another carrot to slice, but there weren't anymore. She sighed and gathered up her carrot bits, dumping them into the pot.

"Traveling performers, right?" Lelouch guessed. If the strange parallels to his world were any comparison. "Acrobats and animals."

"I've always wanted to see the zebras especially!" She turned to him with a charming laugh, "But it's that or the zoos, and there aren't any even near Rush Valley."

"Where are you from, then?"

"Oh, a little town down East," she said, "you've probably never heard of it, Talco." She grinned fondly. "The people are a bit more friendly down there. Smaller communities, you know?"

Lelouch smiled politely, wondering why she had called him in.

"Sorry for calling you," the woman said, "I just wanted to get to know you a little better! Could you reach up there and get me the sieve, please?" She pointed to a cabinet just behind the counter he was leaning on.

Lelouch nodded amiably and went to grab the sieve, wondering what exactly she was making. It looked sort of like soup. He turned back. "Is this the right on- _what_!" He lunged to the side, narrowly escaping the knife that was hurtling towards his face. It grazed him anyway, slicing open his jaw and bouncing off cabinet behind him. Riyal reeled back for another swing, eyes wide and teeth bared in hatred.

"Riyal, I-" Without pausing, she jabbed forward again, stabbing her knife at his throat.

"Shut up!" she snapped. Lelouch automatically brought up the sieve, throwing himself back with the impact. The knife got caught in the fibers and Lelouch twisted, yanking the knife out of her hand. It clattered to the ground. "What are you doing?!" Riyal's eyes flickered to the knife on the floor. Without thinking, Lelouch kicked it away, starting to back towards the kitchen door.

"It's no use," Riyal said in a low, calm voice, her light and airy tone gone. "I locked the door when we came in. She slowly followed him, Lelouch holding the sieve like a shield, his mind racing furiously. "You shouldn't be so surprised, Lelouch vi Britannia."

Lelouch froze. "What- how- I don't know what you're talking about," he stammered with a wobbly smile. "My name is Lelouch Lamperouge. I'm sorry, you m-must've got me mixed up with someone else." He lowered the sieve a little, his hands spread in a defenseless gesture. "Miss Riyal?"

"Coward," Riyal spat, "still hiding behind your lies. Did you think that'd be enough?"

Lelouch flinched, calculating. He scowled. "Fi-Fine," he said, throwing down the sieve and drawing straight, staring directly at Riyal. "Who are you?"

Riyal didn't look the least bit surprised. "I told you, didn't I, _your majesty_? My name is Riyal. Riyal Stielson, daughter of Earl Stielson." She narrowed her eyes. "Ring any bells?"

"I see," said Lelouch. He vaguely remembered the name from a list of nobles he had eliminated as a matter of course in the aftermath of geassing half the royal court _but that made no sense because-_

"And how did you know it was me, and not some double?"

Riyal cocked her head in scorn. "There are no such things as French in this country, vi Britannia, nor are there zebras nor caravans nor zoos. You are a fool to have come here and arrogant fool to keep flaunting about your name. You did this to us! You _deserve_ to die."

Lelouch laughed. "You aren't the first to have said that to me, Riyal Stielson. Tell me, is this what your father would have wanted you to become, a knocked up housewife, after he died?"

She smiled grimly. "You're stalling." She whirled in what Lelouch recognized as a trained maneuver and bore down with a quick lash of her high heeled shoes, which he just noticed she had been wearing as they smashed into his side. He fell to the ground, surprised at the distinct waver of pain. That was certainly not what being kicked was supposed to feel like. Riyal made a dive for the knife and Lelouch kicked the sieve to ricochet off a cabinet and knock the knife further away. His calculation was perfect, but his strength was insufficient to properly put the knife out of commission, just tangling it up with the broken wires of the sieve. Riyal turned back to him, breathing unsteadily, reaching behind her short jacket where a hint of a pistol came out with an unmistakable gleam.

Lelouch's attention, however, was drawn slowly and inexplicably to her belly.

"Look at me," said Riyal. He jerked his gaze back up. "Do you know why my father named me Riyal?" She said, her hands steady. Steady with an unfathomable hatred Lelouch reconized, when he was facing the demons that just wouldn't die, that came to torture him again and again in moments like these, he sincerely thought he slaughtered all these families in their homes with only a 2% margin for error. After all, he had bigger things to worry about at the time. He looked down at her arrogantly. It wouldn't be so bad, he thought, to die here, by this ironic mirror of his own actions. "My father named me Riyal," she said in that low and empty voice, "because he yearned for recognition of all his sacrifice, his hard work. Riyal sounded like Royalty, for what we aspired to become." The gun barrel came up. "A mistake," she whispered.

Her finger pushed down on the trigger and for the hundredth time in his life, Lelouch didn't know what to do. Then for the hundredth time in his life, the decision was made for him. The bullet was suddenly deflected to the side in a flash of black and silver and Lelouch was shoved backwards into the cabinets.

It took a second for Lelouch to process what had happened. "I, who-"

The man pushed him back, some kind of yin yang demon mask strapped over his face. He was dressed like some kind of ninja, all dark cloth and blades. Riyal didn't wait, simply shooting again. The man moved impossibly fast and the bullet somehow ricocheted again off something and suddenly there was a choked cry and Riyal staggered.

Lelouch froze, glancing to the masked fighter in confusion. Riyal coughed, ragged and wet, knocking back against the cabinets but still standing, glaring at him in utter hatred. Her hands grasped at her chest, blood starting to leak in a growing stain against her dress. "D-damn you," she said unsteadily.

Lelouch said nothing, eyes wide in surprise. "Your body," he muttered, distracted, "what's wrong with your body?"

The masked man moved forward, but Lelouch pulled his arm with a quick yank. "No," he said, "Don't touch her!" Without waiting for a response he moved forward to Riyal, his vision shifting for another moment as he glanced down at her chest and stomach, the wound lanced too close to her heart. Riyal's eyes were clouded in pain, slowly sinking to the ground.

"You're dying," he told her, matter of factly. She didn't respond, making little wet coughing sounds like blood had entered her lungs. Deliberately not glancing back, Lelouch knelt down with her, pulling her arm away from her chest, feeling her pulse, seeing the wound. She snarled. "You've lost." He said, quieter. "Tell me, what did you mean, 'us?'"

"Y-you," she managed, her hand tightening in his. He waited patiently. "Y-you know what they called me?" She grinned up at him, blood dripping down the side of her mouth and staining her teeth. "_Brilliant_. They called… me genius. You'll not survive… _here…_, vi Britannia." And her grip tightened with an unbelievable strength and faded, a single breath sighing out of her. Her head slowly sank to her chest.

The thing in her belly stopped moving. Lelouch glanced down again, puzzled, then his eyes began to widen in horrified realization.

Down in the shop, the door banged open with a clatter and a cheerful clink of bells. "Riyal?" rang Davis' voice through the house, "Lelouch?" But there was nobody in the house left to answer.

* * *

"I don't understand," said Ed finally.

Winry glanced up from Paninya's shin. "What?"

"He should have found us by now," explained Al, sounding worried. "We made such a huge fuss, that there were even fireworks at one point! Lelouch still hasn't found us."

"Did he… really run off?" said Ed uncertainly. It was just too weird. Really weird. Just like- he jumped to his feet.

"We were making a lot of noise," he said, "so what if the homunculi-"

Al made a sound of distress. "Seriously? You think they could have got to him?"

Ed sat down, letting out a breath. "No, we can't just jump to conclusions, we just have to-"

He was interrupted by the sound of a loud jingle screeching out into the air. Activity seemed to pause as a there was the noise of scratchy interference crackling through a recently repaired pole with some radio funnels wired on top.

'LELOUCH, PAGING LELOUCH' blared over the intercom. 'PLEASE REPORT TO THE CENTRAL STATION FOR QUESTIONING. LELOUCH PLEASE REPORT TO CENTRAL STATION FOR QUESTIONING.'

Edward and Alphonse looked at each other.

"Why the hell didn't we think of that?" said Ed blankly.

"Come on, let's go then," Winry said briskly, already heading towards the downtown, "the faster we find him, the faster we can leave." She smiled back at Paninya, who grinned back.

"Where you heading?"

"The station, monkey girl," Edward growled with hostility. Paninya still hadn't given his watch back.

Paninya blinked plaintively, "I don't want to go there."

"Tough," said Ed, stomping off.

"It's really best if you come along," said Al, worried about whoever was calling Lelouch from the police station.

Paninya wrinkled her nose. "It's no problem if we find this Lelouch fellow, right?" She hopped up the side of a recently repaired canopy. "I know this town like the back of my hand! I can find him in no time." She winked at Ed's flabbergasted face. "If Winry's hot descriptions are any help, he'll be easy to find. Don't worry, I won't wander off juuust yet. You're all just so interesting!" And before any of them could protest, she was already speeding away.

There were a few seconds of silence. "Augh!" Edward rubbed his hands hard in his hair, "fucking fine then!"

* * *

A light haired man with sunglasses on was pacing when Ed barreled up to the desk. "Where's Lelouch?" Ed demanded. The man whirled.

"You know him?" He said, grabbing Ed by the side of his hood.

"What the- get off me!" said Ed, slapping off his hand.

"Were you the one who made the announcement?" Al asked, before the situation could devolve.

The man nodded, running a hand through his hair. Frown lines were worried into his mouth. "I need to find him. I think he's in terrible danger."

"What? Lelouch?" said Ed blankly, examining the man closer. "Who are you, anyway?"

"I'm Davis. Davis Stielson. My wife- my wife was killed, there's blood everywhere, Lelouch was-"

"Lelouch killed someone?" said Ed incredulously.

Davis blinked at him. "He- no, I-" he stopped abruptly. It was obvious he hadn't even considered the possibility. "No, that can't be right," he said, shaking his head. "I just invited him in for some food. He didn't seem like he would just up and murder someone."

Ed and Al exchanged a glance. "What happened?"

"I left a few minutes for my supplier- I run a metal works shop- and when I came back I found-" he gave the most involuntary noise in the back of his throat that Ed had ever heard. "My wife was shot, in the heart, and the only thing they found was this."

He opened his palm, seemingly for the first time, because there was still wet blood around what used to be a golden tassel tied in an intricate knot, frayed at the edge.

"A Xingese charm to ward off bad luck." His mouth ticked up in a hysterical grin. "Just like Lelouch."

* * *

"Hello again… Lelouch," said C.C, turning her head to face him. Her bare legs kicked off the edge of C's World, the floating platform a rickety combination of clockwork and steel girder. "Back to the world of living, hm?"

Lelouch tried to say something, but no words could exit his mouth.

"Well," conceded C.C, "if you're really here, that is." She turned to face him in one smooth movement, a silk robe rippling into being and draping itself around her shoulders. "It looks like you can hear me now, however." Her calm gold gaze raked over him, settled on the handcuffs he just noticed he was wearing. "How nostalgic."

God, did she ever get to the point?! His aggravation must have shown on his face, because she gave a familiar flicker of a smirk and turned her back to him. "No, I think I'm having fun watching you bumble around. It's quite entertaining, as code-bearers go. I do hope you realize what you're doing."

She started to fade from sight, just like the dream ending again, and Lelouch finally managed to move and lunge forward to grab her wrist. Everything abruptly glitched, like a perfectly horizontal jitter through the landscape and then smoothed back into the unsettling perma-twilight that was C's World. C.C glared at him.

"You're using up all your free passes, Lelouch. I'm not too pleased with you."

"What's happening to me?" said Lelouch.

Her eyes glittered. "It's always about you. Did it ever occur to you that you're the puppet this time?"

"I saw Rolo-" he started.

"Impressive. Memory capabilities this early in the game," she said. Lelouch glared.

"What? Don't play dumb, witch," his words were still coming out with difficulty, like he was forcing his mouth to move from within a fog, "I… need… to…"

C.C tilted her head, her bangs brushing forward. "Bang," she said, "It's over, Lelouch. Stop trying to change the epilogue."

And as she pulled her arm from his grasp, the world jittered and cracked to pieces.

* * *

AN: *ed stripping is already in canon. I'll do it better in the inevitable rewrite, but I'll just post this for now.

So! Regarding hiatus bleh bleh bleh, this is one of the (very long) moments where you wrote a chapter, lost it when your computer got stolen by assholes who steal macs, and then graduate kind of quickly whilst poking around for it in cloud storage. I tripped on stage, who even does that? Forever immortalized is my 'oh shiiiiit' face as I flail for an errant tassel in front of the Dean herself, who smelt faintly of Cheetos. That was a really terrible thing to notice, I think, that whole thing was ridiculous and now out of my memory forever. Sorry for the wait :x I am genuinely regretful I can't write this story in a serious manner. I am way too amused by Edward's disposition and general badassery. And hopefully I will fit more stuff in the next chapters, dang. This is exactly half of the information I wanted to get out. Sorry for resulting confusion.

Here's a good news/bad news thing. I hashed out a timeline, but now I have to completely rewrite my story at some point. Nebulously after Lab 5. I'll do that later buuuh. So I went back and like minorly edited all my previous chapters, which mostly included deleting the heck out of all my half-hysterical and mostly aggrieved ANs or translating them into calm people language. I'm gonna have to do major rehaul to properly orient and pace better the story but hey! Frankly chapters 1-7 were all one big intro in my head. Now I can write the stuff I actually wanted to write?

Anyways in line with that I feel like I'm going to delete this entire AN later because endless babble. So, that's me, owning up. I still secretly want merciless reviews. This is not secret, by the way. Writing this fic is going to be /so much fun./ /steeples fingers in a sufficiently terrible manner. Opine: What bothered you about the stuff?

Thanks for motivating me! (in fact, I would even use the word fab. You guys are supa fab indeed.)

Oh. Visit my profile to kind of poll for what kind of story I should boop out next. Like Cowboy Bebop/Trigun or Man/Kuroshitsuji or Merlin/Dr Who or Legend of Zelda/Harry Potter etc. All of those I have really freaking awesome ideas for but no idea what to start first.

Reviewwww?


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